Abstract.
Positively charged sodium clusters can be easily ionized by a fs laser pulse of relatively low intensity (<1010 W/cm2), if the laser is in resonance with the plasmon excitation of the cluster. This ionization process was investigated in detail by measuring the kinetic energy distribution of electrons emitted from a size-selected Na93 + as a function of the fs laser intensity. In all cases pure Boltzmann-like energy distributions were observed. A comparison with statistical theory shows that the emission is a purely thermal process. It is different to normal thermionic emission insofar as the electrons are emitted from a hot electron system which is only weakly coupled to a cold ionic background. The results demonstrate purely statistical behaviour of a small fermionic system even for very high excitation energy.
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Received: 25 May 2000 / Accepted: 6 November 2000 / Published online: 9 February 2001
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Schlipper, R., Kusche, R., v. Issendorff, B. et al. Thermal emission of electrons from highly excited sodium clusters . Appl Phys A 72, 255–259 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s003390100763
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s003390100763