Direct determination of the stereochemical structure of CH4

The use of the Coulomb-explosion technique combined with a new multiparticle detector, extremely thin targets, and low-excitation ion source has enabled a direct measurement of the complete stereo-chemistry of the C${\mathrm{H}}_{4}^{+}$ molecular ion. Preliminary analysis of the data gives a structure consistent with predictions of the Jahn-Teller-distorted ground state. We outline the techniques by which this method can be generalized to determine directly complex vibrational motions in polyatomic molecules.