Cluster lab III was set up for experiments with very large HeN (up to N > 1011). These large droplets are suitable to produce metal clusters with diameters of several nm in a well-contolled manner. Only recently it was discovered that in the largest droplets quantized vortices occur. The fact that dopants prefer to agglomerate at vortex sites paves the way for the production 1-dimensional nanoparticles. The produced structures can be analyzed by in situ time of flight mass spectroscopy as well as with ex situ transmission electron microscopy, including energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.
Current experiments exploit the vortices as well as the unique doping capabilities of HeN for the production of tailored gold-silver core-shell nanowires.