Supersonic metal-cluster beams

Developments in laser and molecular beam technology which have made it possible to produce supersonic beams of virtually any element in the periodic table are discussed. Using laser vaporization of the appropriate target, the beam source conditions may be adjusted to produce either the cold free atoms alone, or clusters of these atoms with each other or with another element. Clusters which entailed the one and two photon laser ionization with time of flight mass selective detection were studied. Using a variety of fixed frequency laser, the work function of copper clusters was examined as a function of cluster size in the range from 20 to 29 atoms per cluster. Considerable detailed information is obtained for the electronic structure and bond lengths of a number of transition metal dimers and trimers through the use of high resolution laser spectroscopy with mass selective photoionization detection.