Eur. Phys. J. D 24, 137-143 (2003)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2003-00181-x

New approaches to stored cluster ions

The determination of dissociation energies and recent studies on dianionic metal clusters

¹ Institut für Physik, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald, 17487 Greifswald, Germany
² Department of Physics, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, 40014, Finland
³ Chalmers University of Technology and Gothenburg University, School of Physics and Engineering Physics, 41296 Gothenburg, Sweden
⁴ Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany

Corresponding author: ^a lutz.schweikhard@physik.uni-greifswald.de

Received: 10 September 2002
Published online: 3 July 2003

Abstract

Ion traps are “wall-less containers" which allow the extended storage of selected species. During the storage various interaction steps may be repeatedly applied. To this end no further hardware has to be added – in contrast to beam experiments. In this progress report two examples of recent developments are presented: the experiments have been performed with metal clusters stored in a Penning (ion cyclotron resonance) trap. A new experimental scheme has been developed which allows precision measurements of the dissociation energies of polyatomic species. It has been triggered by investigations on the delayed photodissociation of stored metal clusters. However, the technique is also readily available for application to a broad variety of different species and it is not even restricted to trapping experiments. The second development is more closely connected with ion storage in Penning traps: by application of an “electron bath" singly charged anionic clusters can be converted into multiply charged species. Subsequently, they are charge selected and investigated with respect to their reaction upon excitation. In particular, preliminary results indicate that dianionic metal clusters emit two electrons upon photoexcitation whereas the singly charged species show dissociation.