CLUSTER AGGREGATION - A NEW METHOD FOR PRODUCING ATOMIC AND MOLECULARCLUSTERS

A new method for the production of cold free clusters is presented. A beam of large rare gas clusters is passed through a low pressure atomi c gas. The gas atoms are picked up by the rare gas clusters whereby th ey condense. A complete evaporation of rare gas atoms from the newly f ormed clusters then follows once the number of captured particles beco mes sufficiently large. The method is demonstrated for Xe clusters wit h size up to 500 atoms per cluster but it should work for most materia ls, including the refractory materials.