Silver clusters from nozzle expansions

This note reports on the first successfull experiments to generate silver clusters (N≦100) in supersonic nozzle flows. A mixture of argon/silver-vapor was used expanding from a conical nozzle (0.35 mm, 10° full cone angle, 17 mm long conical section). Source temperature and total pressure ranged up to 2200 K/300 kPa, and silver partial pressure up to 25 kPa. The data confirm the scaling laws developed to compare clustering of metals with that of rare gases.