Fragmentation of Doubly and Triply Charged Mercury Cluster Ions.

Abstract

The fragmentation of doubly and triply charged mercury cluster ions were investigated. The cluster ions were produced by Xe ions bombardment on a mercury-silver amalgam. The size where evaporation and fission occur with equal probability is called appearance size. The appearance sizes of doubly and triply charged mercury cluster ions were determined to be Na2+=20, and Na3+=46, respectively. The fission channels were investigated and their probability was estimated by calculation of Q-values. The van der Waals bonding of small mercury clusters caused the symmetric fission of doubly charged cluster ions. The fission channels of triply charged cluster ions were asymmetric since the metallic character came into prominence for both precursor and large one of fission fragments.