Eur. Phys. J. D 1, 79-84 (1998)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530050066

Diagnostics of mixed van der Waals clusters

Laboratoire d'Optique Quantique du CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau Cedex, France

Corresponding author: ^a fort@leonardo.polytechnique.fr

Received: 6 October 1997
Revised: 4 November 1997
Accepted: 13 November 1997
Published online: 15 January 1998

Abstract

We present two complementary techniques that provide detailed diagnostics of supersonic beams involving several species. First, surface scattering, together with quadrupole mass spectrometer detection, yields the monomer percentage for each species within the beam. Second, analyses of beam profiles for different masses after scattering by a buffer gas permit determination of mixed cluster presence and, if any, of cluster sizes and compositions. The two techniques are applied to supersonic expansions of an argon-nitrogen mixture. We discuss the results that provide new insight in binary nucleation processes.