The melting of isolated neutral tin cluster distributions with mean sizes of about 500 atoms has been investigated in a molecular beam experiment by calorimetrically measuring the clusters' formation energies as a function of their internal temperature. For this purpose the possibility to adjust the temperature of the clusters' internal degrees of freedom by means of the temperature of the cluster source's nozzle was exploited. The melting point of the investigated tin clusters was found to be lowered by 125 K and the latent heat of fusion per atom is reduced by 35% compared to bulk tin. The melting behavior of the isolated tin clusters is discussed with respect to the occurrence of surface premelting.

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In a novel molecular beam experiment we have calorimetrically investigated the dependence of the formation energies of isolated Sn(N) clusters on their size. The experimentally determined size dependence of the formation energy for Sn(N) clusters consisting of between 95 and 975 atoms can be explained by the existence of two different types of cluster isomers: One class of isomers is characterized by formation energies proportional to N(-1/3), indicating compact spherical-like shapes. The other class has constant formation energies for the investigated size range, which is consistent with quasi-one-dimensional geometries.

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Time-of-flight analysis of neutral cluster beams through detection of charged particles produced by cluster impact on a channeltron Rev. Sci.A low cost detector for particles in molecular beam experiments is presented which can easily be mounted in a molecular beam apparatus. The detector is based on microfabricated cantilevers, which can be employed either as single sensors or as sensor arrays. The single cantilever technique has been used to measure the absolute number of atoms coming out of a pulsed laser vaporization cluster source. The particles are detected by the shift of the thermally excited resonance frequency of the cantilever due to the cluster deposition. We have determined with the single cantilever the ratio of neutral to ionized clusters and we have investigated the cluster generation at different source conditions. In addition to this, a microfabricated cantilever array has been used to measure molecular beam profiles, which opens new possibilities for molecular beam deflection experiments.