Thermal CO desorption from photoexcited free metal-carbonyl clusters has been resolved in real time using two-color pump-probe photoelectron spectroscopy. Sequential energy dissipation steps between the initial photoexcitation and the final desorption event, e.g., electron relaxation and thermalization, have been resolved for Au 2 ͑CO͒ 2 and Pt 2 ͑CO͒ 5 2 . The desorption rates for the two clusters differ considerably due to the different numbers of vibrational degrees of freedom. The unimolecular CO-desorption thresholds of Au 2 ͑CO͒ 2 and Pt 2 ͑CO͒ 5 2 have been approximated by means of a statistical Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel calculation using the experimentally derived desorption rate constants. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.076102 PACS numbers: 68.43.Vx, 33.80.Eh, 36.40. -c, 42.65.Re Thermal desorption of a molecule from an equilibrated surface takes place due to statistical energy fluctuations among all degrees of freedom. There is a certain probability that energy is accumulated in a specific chemisorptive bond that exceeds the desorption threshold of an adsorbed molecule. As thermal desorption is a statistical process, which is usually described in terms of stochastic time evolution of the energy content of the dissociative mode [1], the desorption rate depends first of all on the desorption threshold and the total number of degrees of freedom. In isolated particles, the energy cannot simply be released to the surrounding by diffusion or heat transport as in solids. Therefore in small metal-adsorbate clusters a finite probability exists to release the energy by thermal electron emission (thermionic emission) or thermal desorption of a ligand molecule after reaching thermal equilibrium. The energy redistributes either into a particular degree of freedom, i.e., a particular electronic state having one electron less, or a dissociative final state.For photon-induced desorption processes, many dissipation steps are involved between the initial energy absorption and final ligand evaporation. Energy dissipation in photoexcited systems proceeds via electron relaxation and vibrational relaxation where the former process is usually faster than electron-vibrational coupling. Inelastic electron-electron scattering with time constants much less than 100 fs have been observed in optically excited bulk metals [2]. Similar relaxation times have also been observed for Pd and Au nanoparticles [3]. Even the smallest transition metal clusters of Pt, Pd, and Ni show electron relaxation times of about 100 fs [4,5]. Thermalization between the electronic and vibrational system is usually slower ranging to the ps regime.Transition metal-carbonyl clusters such as Pt n ͑CO͒ m 2 are excellent candidates to study photon-induced thermal desorption processes. In these clusters decarbonylation thresholds are smaller than both the electron affinity (thermionic emission threshold) and the metal-metal dissociation energy [6,7]. Besides fluorescence, evaporation of a ligand molecule should thus be the only process by which energy can be rele...