Mass spectroscopy of cold silicon and silver clusters

Here we investigate the mass spectroscopy of silver and silicon nanoclusters created by the laser ablation of microparticles (LAM) process. We used a supersonic beam machine equipped with a modified General Valve solenoid pulsed conical nozzle and a time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF). During adjustment measurements xenon clusters created by supersonic gas expansion in a slightly simpler setup were detected with sizes up to more than 35 atoms. The limits of this experiments seem to be the available electronics and the geometry of the time-of-flight mass spectrometer. By using an additional feedstock aerosol creating system and an ablation cell we continued the work of Nichols of investigating the LAM process. The main task therefore was the elimination of the numerous possible factors that impeded the detection of any silicon clusters and more than the cluster fragments Ag [subscript n], n = 1, 2, 3. Probably the unintentional occurrence of an impactor in the ablation cell bars small clusters from entering the vacuum chamber. Therefore, we designed a new additional vacuum chamber which makes the use of a continuous working nozzle possible