https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530050114
Size-dependent light emission from mass-selected clusters
1
Institut de physique expérimentale, université de
Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
2
Département de physique de la matière condensée,
université de Genève, 1211 Genève, Switzerland
3
Tetra Pak Romont SA, 1860 Romont, Switzerland
4
IBM Research Division, Zurich Research Laboratory,
8803 Rüschlikon, Switzerland
5
5 Physikalisches Institut, RWTH Aachen, 52056 Aachen,
Germany
Corresponding author: a Marc.Schaffner@ipe.unil.ch
Received:
28
October
1997
Revised:
5
January
1998
Accepted:
30
January
1998
Published online: 15 April 1998
The emission of photons in the visible wavelength range from
mass-selected Ag+_n, Cu+_n, Pt+_n and Pd+_n (
) clusters is observed. Photons are detected
≈ 10-4 s after the cluster generation in a sputter
source. The emission intensities display distinct variations with
cluster size and material. The observations are interpreted in
terms of the decay of metastable states which are excited during the
high-energy sputtering process used for the generation of these
clusters.
PACS: 32.50.+d – Fluorescence, phosphorescence (including quenching) / 36.40.-c – Atomic and molecular clusters
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 1998
