Mass Spectrometric Evidence for Icosahedral Structure of Large Rare Gas Clusters: Ar, Kr, Xe
Abstract
Clusters of argon, krypton, and xenon are grown in a free jet and ionized by electron impact. The size of these clusters, (Rg)+n, extends up to n≂1000. Individual cluster sizes are mass resolved up to n≂570 in the case of Ar+n. The well known, but puzzling differences in the size distributions of Kr and Xe clusters disappear beyond n≂130, while those between Ar and Xe disappear beyond n≂220. The most pronounced ‘‘magic numbers’’ in the distributions of large cluster ions occur at n=147 (148 for Ar), 309, and 561, in striking agreement with the number of atoms required to build icosahedral clusters with 3, 4, and 5 complete coordination shells, respectively. Closure of the 6th icosahedral coordination shell is indicated by another strong intensity drop at n≂923 in the unresolved part of the spectra. Several additional intensity extrema are observed between major shell closures. A simple structural model, assuming an icosahedral core decorated by the additional atoms, accounts for these anomalies reasonably well up to n=561.
Department
Physics
Publication Date
6-4-1998
Journal Title
The Journal of Chemical Physics
Publisher
AIP
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
W. Miehle, O. Kandler, T. Leisner, and O. Echt, Mass Spectrometric Evidence for Icosahedral Structure of Large Rare Gas Clusters: Ar, Kr, Xe, J. Chem. Phys. 91 (1989) 5940, DOI: 10.1063/1.457464.