Inner shell photoionization of laser-ablated Sulphur clusters

The present work presents a new experimental arrangement which combines laser ablation with synchrotron radiation and mass spectrometric techniques. To test the feasibility of our experimental arrangement, we have carried out the study of the photoionization, using soft X rays, of gas phase sulphur clusters produced by laser ablation. In particular, we present the variations of the inner shell photoionization yield of different Sn clusters (n=1, 2, 4, 6 and 8) across the S 2p core edge. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first successful study of inner shell photoionization of ablated cluster samples using synchrotron radiation.