Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of alkanethiols on gold are ideal model systems for studying the emission processes of secondary ions from thin organic layers on metal substrates under keV ion bombardment. In this experimental study, we focus on the emission processes of gold-hexadecanethiolate cluster ions, which are not well understood yet. For this purpose, we carried out time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) measurements on SAMs of hexadecanethiols (HDT, CH3-(CH2)(15)-SH) on gold substrates. The gold-hexadecanethiolate cluster ions AuxMy- show intense peaks in mass spectra of negatively charged secondary ions under 10 keV Ar+ bombardment. Around the corresponding peaks, a characteristic peak pattern of additional ions is observed. We analyzed the contribution of different cluster ions formed by an attachment or a loss of several hydrogen atoms and their isotope patterns to the individual peaks of the peak pattern. We found two different types of gold-hexadecanethiolate cluster ions. The first type has only one parent ion with no hydrogen atom attached. The second type has two parent ions, one without attachment of hydrogen atoms and another with one additional hydrogen atom. Moreover, we found a universally valid sum formula, which predicts the most intense peak in the peak pattern of all gold-hexadecanethiolate cluster ions analyzed. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.