Size Determination of Argon Clusters from a Rayleigh Scattering Experiment

Argon clusters are produced in the process of adiabatic expansion of a high backing pressure gas into vacuum through a nozzle. The cluster size is determined by a Rayleigh scattering measurement. The scattered signal measured is proportional to the 2.78th power of gas stagnation pressure. The average cluster sizes vary from 100 to more than 12000 atoms/cluster with the argon gas backing pressures ranging between 3 to 45atm.