We demonstrate the use of Cold Target Recoil Ion Momentum Spectroscopy (COLTRIMS) to perform state-selective measurements of the dissociative channels following the single-photon double ionization (PDI) of H2O. The two dominant dissociation channels observed lead to two-body (OH + + H + + 2e −) and three-body (2H + + O + 2e −) ionic fragmentation channels. In the two-body case we observe the presence of an autoionization process with a double differential cross section that is similar to the PDI of helium well above threshold. In the three-body case, momentum and energy correlation maps in conjunction with new classical trajectory calculations in the companion theory paper by Streeter et al. [1] lead to the determination of the eight populated dication states and their associated fragmentation geometry. For the latter case, state-specific relative cross sections, median kinetic energy releases, and median angles between asymptotic proton momenta are presented. This benchmark level experiment demonstrates that, in principle, state-selective fixed-frame tripledifferential cross sections can be measured for some dication states of the water molecule.
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