The Lifetime Distribution of Cluster Ions from Sputtering Ion Source

Abstract

The lifetime distribution of silver and mercury-silver binary cluster ions from a sputtering ion source was investigated. The cluster ions were produced by 10 keV Xe ion bombardment on a mercury-silver amalgam for mercury-silver binary clusters, and a silver plate for silver clusters. The fragmentation rates were obtained from experimental data at several positions of the mass spectrometer. The lifetime distribution was calculated using fragmentation rates. The distribution was found to be rather power functional than exponential, because of the wide distribution of lifetimes for cluster ions. The cluster ion, Hg₁₂Ag⁺, which might have an icosahedron structure turned out to be more stable than neighboring clusters.