Photofragmentation of mass-selected titanium oxide cluster cations

In this paper we present the photofragmentation spectra of mass-selected positive titanium oxide cluster ions Ti (x) O (y) (+). The clusters are generated by the combination of laser ablation of a titanium target and the supersonic nozzle expansion of oxygen and are detected by time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Small clusters are mass-selected and photodissociated at a wavelength of 308 nm. The recorded photofragmentation spectra indicate that for all parent clusters the main fragment is TiO+ and, in some cases, Ti2O3 (+) is also observed. This is consistent with the assumption that small Ti (x) O (y) (+) clusters are built from a TiO+ core with TiO2 building blocks.