Production of carbon clusters $\text{C}_3$ to $\text{C}_{12}$ with a cryogenic buffer-gas beam source

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that cryogenic buffer-gas beam sources effectively produce and detect a wide range of carbon clusters, with potential advantages over traditional methods for molecular beam generation.

Contribution

The paper introduces a neon matrix isolation method to study carbon clusters produced by a cryogenic buffer-gas beam source, providing new insights into cluster production efficiency.

Findings

Produced $10^{11}-10^{12}$ clusters per laser pulse.

Demonstrated the effectiveness of buffer-gas sources for molecular cluster production.

Characterized the dependence of cluster production on system parameters.

Abstract

Cryogenic buffer-gas beam sources are capable of producing intense beams of a wide variety of molecules, and have a number of advantages over traditional supersonic expansion sources. In this work, we report on a neon matrix isolation study of carbon clusters produced with a cryogenic buffer-gas beam source. Carbon clusters created by laser ablation of graphite are trapped in a neon matrix and detected with a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer in the spectral range $4000-1000~\text{cm}^{-1}$. Through a study of carbon cluster production as a function of various system parameters, we characterize the behavior of the buffer-gas beam source and find that approximately $10^{11}-10^{12}$ of each cluster is produced with each pulse of the ablation laser. These measurements demonstrate the usefulness of cryogenic buffer-gas beam sources for producing molecular beams of clusters.