Time-of-flight analysis of neutral cluster beams through detection of charged particles produced by cluster impact on a channeltron

A method for time-of-flight analysis of neutral cluster beams is presented. It is based on the use of a channeltron as a fast flux-sensitive detector of high-speed neutral particles in a beam. The impact of neutral clusters on the channeltron surface causes the emission of charged particles, which can be detected by the channeltron itself. We show that a channeltron can be used for the characterization of velocity distributions in analogy with fast ion gauges but without requiring any ionization device. This method has also the advantage of being selectively sensitive to the cluster component of seeded supersonic beams. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.