Shape analysis of current pulses delivered by semiconductor detectors:: A new tool for fragmentation studies of high velocity atomic clusters and molecules

Shape analyses of current pulses delivered by semiconductor detectors under impact of high velocity atomic clusters have been performed for the first time. We show in this paper that the shape of the current pulse depends sensitively on the cluster size. When the cluster is fragmented, the obtained signal is found to result from the sum of signals associated with individual fragment impacts so that recognition of the fragmentation pathway is made possible in an unambiguous way. Application to the extraction of the 29 fragmentation channels of neutral C-9 clusters is presented. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.