Abstract

Using primarily high flux oven-based metal source configurations small alkali (Li_x, Na_x,K_x), coinage (Cu_x, Ag_x), and group IVA (Si_x,Ge_x) metal clusters are being generated in supersonic expansions and agglomerating flows. Both the clusters and their oxidation to form the metal cluster oxides, M_nO (n > 2), are being characterized using a combination of single and multiphoton laser fluorescent techniques, chemiluminescence, and mass spectrometry. Photodissociation studies on sodium tri- mer using laser-induced one- and two-photon atom fluorescence spectroscopy (LIAF, TPLIAF) are now being extended to lithium trimer generating a bound-free mirror image spectroscopy which strongly complements the information obtained from bound-bound two-photon spectroscopy. Recent results obtained with an intense copper trimer source demonstrate an ability to (1) study fluorescence from strongly dissociative levels and (2) observe substantial temperature-dependent dynamic changes in spectral features associated with the fluxional nature of copper trimer.

© 1986 Optical Society of America