ELECTRON IMPACT STUDY OF ARGON CLUSTERS

A. Pelc, L. Michalak

Institute of Physics, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Pl. M. Curie-Sklodowskiej 1, 20-031 Lublin, Poland


The production of argon clusters Arn, n £ 21, by adiabatic gas expansion of Ar is studied by using an electron impact ion source and a double focusing sector field mass spectrometer. Results of measurements of appearance pressures of selected clusters are described for a range of operating conditions. The appearance pressures of observed clusters showed a slowly increasing dependence on cluster size.