Electron-impact-induced dissociation of small argon clusters

Abstract

We study electron-impact-induced dissociation of small van der Waals--bound argon complexes at a projectile energy of 120 eV. Kinetic-energy-release (KER) spectra of the ${\text{Ar}}_{2}$ and ${\text{Ar}}_{3}$ parent species for the final charge states $2{\text{Ar}}^{+}, {\text{Ar}}^{+}+{\text{Ar}}^{2+}$, and ${\text{Ar}}_{2}^{+}+{\text{Ar}}^{+}$ and electron energies have been measured together with angular distributions of fragment ions. They are used to identify dissociation mechanisms such as interatomic Coulombic decay (ICD).