Composite samples and the generation of novel metal carbide clusters

New methods are described for the preparation of composite metal-carbon samples used for pulsed laser vaporization molecular beam cluster experiments. Samples containing a thin metal film on the surface of a carbon rod are prepared by thermal metal vapor deposition of electrochemical metal deposition. These composite samples are used to produce metal carbide clusters in the gas phase which could not be produced by other techniques. The size distributions of Bi/C, Sb/C, Ni/C, Co/C and Cu/C cluster cations are measured with time-of-flight mass spectrometry.