Influence of hydrogen on the stability of positively charged silicon dioxide clusters

Abstract

The observation of positively charged SiO2 clusters that were desorbed from thin SiO2 films on silicon by slow, very highly charged gold ions is reported. Cluster intensities depend on a critical interplay between the number of oxygen and silicon atoms and the number of hydrogen atoms in the cluster. Positively charged, oxygen rich clusters that are stabilized by the incorporation of additional hydrogen atoms were observed.