Photodissociation of small group-11 metal cluster ions: fragmentation pathways and photoabsorption cross sections

Noble metal cluster ions Cu(n)(+), Ag(n)(+) and Au(n)(+) (n = 3-21) have been stored in a Penning trap and photodissociated by low intensity laser pulses of 10 ns at photon energies of 3.49 eV and 4.66 eV. The fragmentation pathways, neutral monomer and dimer evaporation, have been monitored as a function of cluster size, excitation energy and element. It is found that the behavior of the branching ratio between monomer and dimer evaporation as a function of excitation energy depends on the metal under investigation. In particular, the slope of the energy dependence is positive for silver but negative for gold and copper cluster ions. Furthermore, photoabsorption cross sections are determined from observed total fragment yields in single-photon dissociation.