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Photoinduced Coulombic fission of doubly charged lithium-atom clusters is observed for cluster sizes around the critical size of stability. The absolute value of the outer part of the Coulombic barrier is deduced from kinetic-energy-release measurements. The inner part is obtained from unimolecular decay. Such analysis provides a complete characterization of the energetics of the fissioning system.

The dissociation of tellurium cluster ions containing up to 40 atoms has been studied using unimolecular decay of thermoexcited clusters. Clusters with less than 10 atoms dissociate mainly by Te2 loss. Larger clusters fragment by loss of Te5, Te6, or Te7 species. As the cluster size increases, Te5 loss becomes the predominent channel, showing a dissociation which smoothly evolves to the bulk behavior. The dissociation energies of mass selected Te+n, with n=5–35, are deduced from the relative branching ratios of the competitive fragmentation channels. The changes in the observed neutral products are correlated to changes in the dissociation energies which are minima for cluster ion parents containing 13–25 atoms.