Dissociation, Fragmentation and Fission of Simple Metal Clusters

Under the general title of dissociation and fragmentation [7] processes in metal clusters, one usually distinguishes two classes of phenomena, i.e. (1) dissociation of neutral monomers and/or dimers, and (2) fission. The physical processes in the first class are most often referred to as evaporation of monomers and/or dimers, since they are endothermic processes and are usually induced through laser heating of the cluster. The unimolecular 

Metal Clusters. Edited by W. Ekardt 1999 John Wiley Sons Ltd 

It needs to be emphasized that fragmentation through fission involves most often the overcoming of a fission barrier, while monomer and dimer separation are barrierless processes [4]. 

1 Metal Cluster Fission and Nuclear Fission Similarities and Differences 

Multiply charged metallic clusters (Myv ) are observable in mass spectra if they exceed a critical size of stability Nc (e.g. for Z = 2, Nc = 27 for Na and = 20 for K [4, 9]). For clusters with N evaporation of neutral species is the preferred 

---

Dissociation, Fragmentation and Fission of Simple Metal Clusters... 

---