Neutral and charged phosphorus clusters of a wide size range have been produced by pulsed laser ablation (PLA) in vacuum at 532, 337, and 193 nm ablating wavelengths and investigated by time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The neutral P_n clusters are even-numbered with local abundance maxima at n = 10 and 14, while the cationic and anionic clusters are preferentially odd-numbered with (P_7)+, (P_21)+, and (P_17)- being the most abundant ions. The dominance of the magic clusters is more pronounced at 337-nm ablation that is explained by efficient direct ejection of their building blocks under these conditions. Nanocrystalline phosphorus films have been produced by PLA in ambient helium gas.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0404092,
title = {Phosphorus cluster production by laser ablation},
author = {A. V. Bulgakov and O. F. Bobrenok and Igor Ozerov and W. Marine and S. Giorgio and A. Lassesson and E. E. B. Campbell},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0404092},
year = {2007}
}