Phys. Rev. A 98, 012501 (2018)
Effect of radiative cooling on the size-dependent stability of small boron clusters
Piero Ferrari1, Jan Vanbuel1, Klavs Hansen1,2, Peter Lievens1, Ewald Janssens1,*, and André Fielicke3
1 Laboratory of Solid State Physics and Magnetism, KU Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
2 Center for Joint Quantum Studies and Department of Physics, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China and Department of Physics, Gothenburg University, 41296 Gothenburg, Sweden
3 Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, 14195 Berlin, Germany
* Corresponding author: ewald.janssens@kuleuven.be
ABSTRACT
The mass spectrum of cationic boron clusters, BN+ (N=5−20), after photoexcitation demonstrates that radiative cooling is an important, though often neglected, process in determining the relative stability of small and isolated particles. The observed intensities in mass spectra suggest that B5+,B11+,B13+, and B15+ are particularly stable clusters, consistent with density-functional theory calculations. Quantitative agreement, however, is only obtained if radiative cooling is included in the analysis. All clusters are found to radiate on microsecond timescales, suggesting recurrent fluorescence as the dominant photon emission process.