title: Experimental determination of nucleation scaling law for small charged particles.
abstract: We investigated the nucleation process at the molecular level. Controlled sticking of individual atoms onto mass selected clusters over a wide mass range has been carried out for the first time. We measured the absolute unimolecular nucleation cross sections of cationic sodium clusters Na{n}{+} in the range n=25-200 at several collision energies. The widely used hard sphere approximation clearly fails for small sizes: not only should vapor-to-liquid nucleation theories be modified, but also, through the microreversibility principle, cluster decay rate statistical models.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Collisions, Agrégats, Réactivité (UMR 5589, CNRS, and Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse 3), 118 route de Narbonne, 31062, Toulouse Cedex 09, France.
authors.forename: Fabien
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chirot
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Labastie
authors.forename: Sébastien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zamith
authors.forename: Jean-Marc
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: L'Hermite