Positively charged cluster ions of phosphorus were formed upon electron ionization of doped helium nanodroplets. The vapors of red phosphorus and a phosphate sample were picked up into neutral and charged helium nanodroplets. Independent on the conditions used, the cluster size distributions exhibit pronounced odd-even oscillations that are opposite to almost all experimental and theoretical patterns published in the literature. The low temperature environment of the superfluid He matrix quenches fragmentation and the charged phosphorus clusters resemble the structure of the neutral precursors.
@article{arxiv.2211.05061,
title = {Phosphorus cluster cations formed in doped helium nanodroplets are different},
author = {Simon Albertini and Faro Hechenberger and Siegfried Kollotzek and Lukas Tiefenthaler and Paul Martini and Martin Kuhn and Alexander Menzel and Elias Jabbour Al Maalouf and Harald Schöbel and Masoomeh Mahmoodi-Darian and Paul Scheier},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2211.05061},
year = {2022}
}