Decay pathway determination of even-size dicationic silver clusters: Ag162+ and Ag182+ revisited by pre-precursor selection and sequential decay Original Research Article

It is demonstrated how by selection of pre-precursor cluster ions Ag2n+12+ and collision-induced dissociation an ensemble of Ag2n2+ can be produced, which is not contaminated by Agn+ clusters of the same size-to-charge state ratio, n/z. By use of this technique, Ag162+ and Ag182+ precursor ensembles have been prepared for further investigations. They are observed to decay by neutral monomer evaporation, Ag2n2+→Ag2n−12++Ag, and trimer fission, Ag2n2+→Ag2n−3++Ag3+, and show no sign of symmetric fission.