https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2003-00160-3
Hyperthermal surface-collisions of water cluster cations
1
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Chemie, Brook-Taylor-Str. 2, 12489 Berlin, Germany
2
Tel Aviv University, Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, School of Chemistry, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
Corresponding author: a cluster@wolfgang-christen.net
Received:
10
September
2002
Published online:
3
July
2003
Size-selected, protonated water cluster cations (H2O)nH+, 
, are scattered at normal incidence from the surface of a diamond-coated silicon wafer at collision energies 
eV.
The size distribution of collision-induced fragment-ions and the ion yield of scattered particles are analyzed, using a secondary time-of-flight mass spectrometer, as a function of the cluster size, n, and the collision energy, 
.
Even at low impact energies only very small fragment-ions can be detected, with a maximum
fragment size of ~35%
of the colliding parent cluster ions.
For clusters consisting of more than
10 molecules, the protonated water dimer (H2O)2H+ becomes the predominant fragment-ion.
The total charge survival yield obeys a nonlinear increase with cluster size;
for the largest clusters investigated, more than
35% of the impacting ions survive the surface collision in the cationic charge state.
PACS: 34.30.+h – Intramolecular energy transfer; intramolecular dynamics; dynamics of van der Waals molecules / 34.50.-s – Scattering of atoms and molecules / 34.70.+e – Charge transfer / 36.40.-c – Atomic and molecular clusters / 61.46.+w – Nanoscale materials: clusters, nanoparticles, nanotubes, and nanocrystals / 82.40.-g – Chemical kinetics and reactions: special regimes and techniques
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2003
