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Size and composition of clusters produced by supersonic expansion of binary gas mixtures

Size and composition of clusters produced by adiabatic expansion of binary gas mixtures (Ar-Kr, Kr-Xe, and N2-Ar) with various component concentrations are studied by using electron-diffraction technique. The resulting homogeneous and heterogeneous clusters are shown to have compositions substantially different from those of the primary gas mixtures and dependent on cluster size. We have found that the key parameters needed for an analysis of cluster composition are the critical cluster radius and the heavier component concentration in the gas mixture that can be used to establish the regions of existence of homogeneous and heterogeneous clusters. These critical values determine the coefficient of the enrichment of clusters with the heavier component with respect to its concentration in the primary gas mixture. Theoretical relations are obtained which provide a good quantitative description of the experimental results and can be expected to be also valid for finding the composition of binary clusters of other van der Waals systems.