Electron impact ionization of C₆₀ revisited: Corrected absolute cross section functions

We report corrected absolute partial ionization cross sections for the various ions produced by electron impact on C₆₀. The correction takes into account ion losses due to metastable fragmentation processes which occur during the flight time of the ions from the ion source to the detector in a two-sector-field mass spectrometer. Due to these ion losses, previously reported absolute partial and total ionization cross-sections were too small by factors ranging from 1.025 to 2. The corrected cross-sections reported here are in good agreement with cross-sections recently reported by two other groups using experimental techniques which are largely insensitive to ion losses caused by metastable decay processes.