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Rayleigh instabilities in multiply charged sodium clusters
F Chandezon1, S Tomita, D Cormier
1Département de Recherche Fondamentale sur la Matière Condensée, CEA-Grenoble, 17, rue des Martyrs, F-38054 Grenoble Cedex 9, France. fchandezon@cea.fr
Abstract:
The stability of multiply charged sodium clusters Na(q+)(n) (q< or =10) produced in collisions between neutral clusters and multiply charged ions A(z+) ( z = 1 to 28) is experimentally investigated. Multiply charged clusters are formed within a large range of temperatures and fissilities. They are identified by means of a high-resolution reflectron-type time-of-flight mass spectrometer (m/deltam approximately 14 000). The maximum fissility of stable clusters is obtained for z = 28 and is X approximately 0.85+/-0.07, slightly below the Rayleigh limit (X = 1). It is mainly limited by the initial cluster temperature (T approximately 100 K).