Dissociation study of tellurium cluster ions, Ten+ (n=25-85) using secondary ion mass spectrometry

Dissociation pathways of tellurium clusters, Te-n(+) (n = 25-85), were investigated by secondary ion mass spectrometry, Positively charged ions were generated from a tellurium sheet by bombardment with 10 keV xenon ion beam. Mass analyses of cluster ions were performed using a grand-stale sector mass spectrometer, In the first field-free region, Te-n(+) (n = 25-80) had a large dissociation probability with five- and six-atom emission and Te-n(+) (n = 50-85) had a slightly large dissociation probability with 10- and 11-atom emission. Five- and six-atom dissociation in the second field-free region could he also observed. These results were most likely due to the cluster emission processes for Te-n(+), although sequential atom emission and cluster emission could not be distinguished by this type of experiments. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.