Rarefied supersonic jet of metal vapor with a light carrier gas: Cluster formation processes

The process of silver cluster formation in a rarefied supersonic jet of a mixture of silver vapor with helium carrier gas is investigated. The study was carried out by the direct simulation Monte Carlo method and a kinetic model of cluster growth. Two simplified geometries of the jet source are considered. The data on cluster size distributions and gasdynamic parameters of the mixture species (metal and carrier gas atoms, metal clusters) are presented for a wide range of the mole fraction of helium in the source. The impact of kinetic model parameters on the flow pattern and cluster formation process are analyzed. The modeling results are compared with available experimental data.