Chemistry Letters, Vol.31, No.6, 562-563, 2002
Formation and detection of large neutral clusters from liquid beam surface by IR laser irradiation
A continuous liquid flow of water in a vacuum (a liquid beam) was irradiated with an IR laser at 2.96 mum which is resonant to a vibration mode of liquid water related to the OH stretching vibration of H2O. Large neutral water clusters, (H2O)(n), were detected directly by a Daly-type detector without ionization. The velocity distribution determined from the flight-time distribution was found to be composed of fast and slow components, which are attributed to the water clusters ejected from the outermost region of the liquid surface and from the inside of the liquid, respectively.