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Clusters

The Clustering Process Seeded Supersonic Nozzle

Gas Aggregation
Electrospray Sputtering Laser Vapourisation (LVS)
Pulsed Arc Cluster Ion Source (PACIS)

Cluster Sources:Sputtering Source

Sputtering Source

The sputtering source is one of the few cluster sources that does not require the condensation of an inert carrier gas for the formation of clusters. Instead, cluster-ion beams are produced by bombarding a metal surface with high-energy inert-gas atoms.

The sputtering source produces a continuous beam of cluster-ions with typically 100's of atoms. The high energy impact of the gas on the target produces large cluster-ions with temperatures which are initially very high. These large, hot clusters cool through evaporation processes.

Since the evaporation process is related to the thermodynamic stabilities, and therefore the binding energies of the clusters, then the abundance spectra from a sputtering source has a structure that reflects variations in binding energy with cluster size.