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Science 25 November 1994:
Vol. 266. no. 5189, pp. 1345 - 1348
DOI: 10.1126/science.266.5189.1345
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Articles

Nondestructive Mass Selection of Small van der Waals Clusters

Wieland Schöllkopf 1 and J. Peter Toennies 1

1 Max-Planck-Institut für Strömungsforschung, Bunsenstrabetae 10, 37073 Göttingen, Germany

Clusters of atoms or molecules have been extensively studied by a variety of spectroscopies because of their unusual properties. Experiments with van der Waals clusters of defined sizes are not easily possible because nozzle beam expansions used in their production yield broad size distributions. Moreover, being weakly bound they readily fragment in the commonly used electron impact-ionization mass spectrometer detectors. Here it is shown that light fragile clusters of He, H2, and D2 can be selected and identified nondestructively by diffraction from a transmission grating. The method is universally applicable also to heavier species and well suited for spectroscopic studies.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Laser Separation of Geometrical Isomers of Weakly Bound Molecular Complexes.
C. Desfrancois, H. Abdoul-Carime, C. P. Schulz, and J. P. Schermann (1995)
Science 269, 1707-1709
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)