A novel experimental method for the measurement of the caloric curves of clusters

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new experimental method that measures the heat capacity and caloric curves of clusters using controlled atom sticking, enabling determination of melting points and latent heat without relying on models.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel, model-free experimental scheme for measuring caloric curves of clusters through controlled atom sticking, applicable to various systems.

Findings

Method successfully applied to Na_90^+ and Na_140^+ clusters.

Results agree with previous measurements.

Enables determination of melting temperature and latent heat.

Abstract

A novel experimental scheme has been developed in order to measure the heat capacity of mass selected clusters. It is based on controlled sticking of atoms on clusters. This allows one to construct the caloric curve, thus determining the melting temperature and the latent heat of fusion in the case of first-order phase transitions. This method is model-free. It is transferable to many systems since the energy is brought to clusters through sticking collisions. As an example, it has been applied to Na\_90\^+ and Na\_140\^+. Our results are in good agreement with previous measurements.