Magic metastable decay of singly charged argon clusters

Abstract

Singly charged argon cluster ions produed by electron impact ionization of a neutral argon cluster beam are found to decay in the metastable time regime by a new mechanism leading to the ejection of ‘‘magic’’ numbers of neutral argon atoms. The measured dependence of this new decay process on (i) the electron energy, (ii) cluster size and cluster properties, and (iii) the time since ion formation gives insight into the unique mechanism and the nature of this process. At a well-defined threshold energy of ca. 27 eV, the magic number loss mechanism occurs simultaneously with the well-known single monomer evaporation process which proceeds at all energies. Importantly, the new mechanism is the first known example of cluster ion metastability showing an exponential dependence on time, providing further evidence that the precursor parent cluster ion is produced in a specific energy state.