Laser spectroscopic studies of molecular ions using fast ion beams

The use of lasers and fast ion beams to study the spectroscopy of molecular Ions has experienced substantial growth over the past five years. Advantage has been taken of the amplification of center-of-mass energies in the laboratory frame, the compression of the velocity distribution when the ions are accelerated, and the ease of detection of single ions to study direct dissociations, predissociations and bound-bound transitions in a variety of ions, with varying degrees of resolution from 10 meV to 10 MHz. The ability to study dissociative processes in detail with high resolution is perhaps the most interesting application of the technique. Investigations of several ions are discussed, with the goal of illustrating the various types of studies which can be made. The extensive work on quartet states of [Math] is used as a case study of the kinds of results that should be available for a large number of ions in the near future.