Abstract

Aluminum cluster ions Al+n are generated by a liquid metal ion source and observed up to n=10 using a magnetic mass analyzer. Relative integrated intensities of cluster ions as a function of n show a distinct step between n=7 and 8, which is explained by the electronic shell model. Cluster ions have lower kinetic energy compared with monomer ions which are accelerated to the full energy. Moreover, energy spread of cluster ions is larger than that of monomer ions. These results are attributed to the difference of ion formation mechanism. In addition to the fully accelerated monomer ions, at a high ion current region there also appear monomer ions with energy deficit which are formed in the same process as cluster ions.

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