Abstract
N2 cluster ions are produced by electron impact ionization of a supersonic N2 cluster beam and analyzed with a double focussing sector field mass spectrometer. It is found that metastable N2 cluster ions lose more than one N2 molecule in the μs time regime and decay predominantly via sequential series (N2)+* n → (N2)+* n−1 → … → N+ 2, evaporating a single monomer in each of these successive decay steps. The metastable decay rates determined in detail for cluster sizes 2 ≤ n ≤ 6 and n = 20 lie between 1 and 106 s−1. These rates (i) depend strongly on the time elapsed after ion formation and on the respective parent cluster ion size, and (ii) exhibit a quasiperiodic pattern in magnitude.
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