title: Charge-induced fragmentation of sodium clusters.
abstract: The fission of highly charged sodium clusters with fissilities X>1 is studied by ab initio molecular dynamics. Na4+24 is found to undergo predominantly sequential Na+3 emission on a time scale of 1 ps, while Na(Q+)(24) ( 5< or =Q< or =8) undergoes multifragmentation on a time scale > or =0.1 ps, with Na+ increasingly the dominant fragment as Q increases. All singly charged fragments Na(+)(n) up to size n = 6 are observed. The observed fragment spectrum is, within statistical error, independent of the temperature T of the parent cluster for T< or =1500 K. These findings are consistent with and explain recent trends observed experimentally.
authors.affiliation: Département de Recherche Fondamentale sur la Matière Condensée, CEA-Grenoble, 17, rue des Martyrs, F-38054 Grenoble CEDEX 9, France.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Blaise
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Blundell
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Guet
authors.forename: R R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Zope