Temporal evolution of an argon cluster during the process of its evaporation Original Research Article

The temporal changing of size, internal temperature and lifetime of a single free evaporating argon cluster after its formation or ionization has been calculated, on the basis of a simple model, as a function of the initial internal temperature and size of the cluster in the size range n≈80–1000. The known dependence of the argon cluster sublimation energy on its size was used. Conditions have been found, under which the terminal internal temperature of the neutral cluster does not depend on its initial internal temperature and depends only on its terminal size and on the time elapsed after the cluster formation. It has been shown that the decay rate of the cluster ion, as a function of its terminal size, has a maximum at n∼400, while the decay rate of the neutral cluster increases with size in the entire size range studied. The main conclusions are confirmed by experimental results.