US 12,068,147 B2
Size selected clusters and nanoparticles
Paul Scheier, Innsbruck (AT); Felix Laimer, Innsbruck (AT); Lorenz Kranabetter, Aarhus C (DK); Fabio Zappa, Innsbruck (AT); Michael Renzler, Innsbruck (AT); Lukas Thiefenthaler, Innsbruck (AT); Simon Albertini, Zurich (CH); Paul Martini, Stockholm (SE); and Siegfried Kollotzek, Innsbruck (AT)
Assigned to UNIVERSITÄT INNSBRUCK, Innsbruck (AT)
Appl. No. 17/611,292
Filed by Universität Innsbruck, Innsbruck (AT)
PCT Filed May 15, 2020, PCT No. PCT/EP2020/063592
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Nov. 15, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/234145, PCT Pub. Date Nov. 26, 2020.
Claims priority of application No. 19175108 (EP), filed on May 17, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0238319 A1, Jul. 28, 2022
Int. Cl. H01J 49/14 (2006.01); H01J 49/00 (2006.01); H01J 49/42 (2006.01)
CPC H01J 49/147 (2013.01) [H01J 49/0054 (2013.01); H01J 49/4215 (2013.01)] 22 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for producing multiply-charged helium nanodroplets and charged dopant clusters and nanoparticles out of the helium nanodroplets, the method comprising:
producing neutral helium nanodroplets in a cold head via expansion of a pressurized, pre-cooled, supersonic helium beam of high purity through a nozzle into high vacuum,
ionizing the helium nanodroplets by electron impact, wherein the electron impact leads to multiply-charged helium nanodroplets,
doping the charged helium nanodroplets with dopant vapor in the pickup cell, wherein the doped nanodroplets form cluster ions with the initial charges acting as seeds,
wherein the size of the nanoparticles can vary from a few atoms up to 105 atoms by arranging the size of the neutral helium nanodroplets, the charge of the helium nanodroplets, and the density of dopant vapor in the pickup cell.