Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Electron impact fragmentation of size-selected krypton clusters.

Christof Steinbach1, Michal Fárník, Udo Buck

  • 1Max-Planck Institut für Dynamik und Selbstorganisation, Bunsenstr. 10, D-37073 Göttingen, Germany.

The Journal of Physical Chemistry. A
|July 21, 2006
PubMed
Summary

Krypton clusters (Kr(n)) predominantly fragment into monomer ions (Kr(+)) upon electron impact ionization, with higher-order ions appearing infrequently. This study investigates the fragmentation patterns of krypton clusters from dimers to heptamers.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Cluster Anions of Hydrated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons: "Magic" Water Tetramer.

The journal of physical chemistry. A·2026
Same author

Electron attachment to CH<sub>3</sub>COCl molecule and clusters.

RSC advances·2025
Same author

Electron attachment to complexes of polyaromatic hydrocarbons with O2 and CO2.

The Journal of chemical physics·2025
Same author

Metastable Evaporation of Molecules from Water Clusters.

The journal of physical chemistry. A·2024
Same author

What does it take to stabilize a naphthalene anion?

The Journal of chemical physics·2024
Same author

Scattering in extreme environments: general discussion.

Faraday discussions·2024

Area of Science:

  • Atomic and Molecular Physics
  • Cluster Science
  • Physical Chemistry

Background:

  • Understanding the ionization and fragmentation of atomic clusters is crucial for various fields, including materials science and atmospheric chemistry.
  • Krypton clusters offer a model system to study fundamental interactions and fragmentation dynamics due to their simple, van der Waals bonded structure.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To comprehensively investigate the complete fragmentation patterns of neutral krypton clusters (Kr(n), n=2-7) following electron impact ionization.
  • To determine the relative probabilities of different fragment ions (Kr(+), Kr2(+), Kr3(+), etc.) produced from various neutral cluster sizes.
  • To explore the underlying mechanisms responsible for the observed fragmentation yields, particularly the high abundance of monomer ions.

Main Methods:

Related Experiment Videos

  • Generation of krypton clusters via supersonic expansion.
  • Size selection of neutral clusters using deflection from a helium target beam.
  • Analysis of fragmentation patterns through measurement of angular and time-of-flight distributions of fragment ions after 70 eV electron impact ionization.

Main Results:

  • The primary fragmentation product for all studied krypton cluster sizes (Kr(n), n=2-7) is the monomer ion (Kr(+)), with a probability consistently exceeding 90%.
  • The observation of dimer (Kr2(+)) and trimer (Kr3(+)) ions is significantly less frequent than anticipated across all cluster sizes.
  • Kr3(+) ions are first observed from Kr(5) clusters, and their relative abundance increases with cluster size but remains low compared to monomer and dimer ions.
  • Even for larger clusters like Kr(7), monomer ions dominate the fragmentation spectrum, accounting for ~90% of the total probability, while fragments with n>3 contribute less than 1%.

Conclusions:

  • The ionization of krypton clusters by electron impact strongly favors fragmentation into the Kr(+) monomer ion.
  • The experimental data suggests specific ionization and dissociation pathways that lead to the suppression of larger cluster ion formation.
  • Further theoretical and experimental investigations are warranted to fully elucidate the dynamics governing the preferential monomer ion formation in krypton cluster fragmentation.