Experiments on Clusters

In this contribution we discuss four different types of experiments that have been conducted at molecular beams of neutral clusters. The size of particularly stable sodium chloride clusters and their corresponding geometrical structure is inferred from intensity anomalies in mass spectra. This information is obtained either for charged or for neutral clusters depending on whether the clusters are ionized by electron impact or by multiphoton absorption. The important role of fragmentation in mass spectrometry of xenon clusters is revealed by multiphoton ionization; dissociative reactions occurring on the time scale of 10−7 s with respect to the ionizing event can be analyzed. The solvation energy of negatively charged carbon dioxide clusters as a function of cluster size is obtained from electron attachment spectra. A resonance in the ion yield close to zero eV electron energy signifies that all clusters except for the monomer feature a positive electron affinity. An analysis of the kinetic energy of fragment ions, originating from delayed dissociation of triply charged carbon dioxide clusters, reveals that the size distribution of their fission fragments is extremely symmetric