Multiply twinned silver particles of rod-like shape and nanometer dimensions prepared by inert-gas aggregation technique have been studied by high-resolution electron microscopy. These pentagonal nanorods exhibit aspect ratio between 1.8 and 6 with the length of their fivefold axis ranging from 22 to 132 nm. Digital image processing and evaluation was utilised to characterise composition and lattice structure of the nanorods. Measuring the spacings of lattice plane fringes of nanorod subunits in various orientations revealed no deviation from the face centred cubic lattice type. There was also no indication of extended lattice defects found. Instead, a certain extent of non-regular lattice distortions recognised in the surface regions of the nanorods apparently is an effective means to achieve sufficient space filling. r

The Pick Up technique allows continuous formation of high density metal cluster beams in the otherwise hardly accessible size range Me2 to about Me50. With an apparatus based on the use of cryocondensation pumps, Ar as inert gas for production of the host clusters by adiabatic expansion and silver as metal we demonstrate how the various source parameters influence the composition and mean size of the resulting cluster distributions. The analysis in the gas phase by means fluorescence spectroscopy allows to conclude that an Ar shell encapsulates the metal clusters.PACS. 36.40.Vz Optical properties of clusters -39.10.+j Atomic and molecular beam sources and techniques

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