The distribution of neutral copper oxide clusters in the gas phase created by laser ablation is detected and characterized through time-of-flight mass spectroscopy (TOFMS). The neutral copper oxide clusters are ionized by two different approaches: Multiphoton absorption of 355 and 193 nm radiation; and single photon absorption of 118 nm radiation. Based on the observed cluster patterns as a function of experimental conditions (e.g., copper oxide or metal sample, ablation laser power, expansion gas, etc.) and on the width of the TOFMS features, one can uncover the true neutral cluster distribution of CumOn species following laser ablation of the sample. Ablation of a metal sample generates only small neutral CumOn clusters for mless than or similar to4 and nsimilar to1, 2. Ablation of copper oxide samples generates neutral clusters of the form CumOm (mless than or equal to4) and CumOm-1 (m>4). These clusters are directly detected without fragmentation using single photon, photoionization with 118 nm laser radiation. Using 355 and 193 nm multiphoton ionization, the observed cluster ions are mostly of the form Cu2mOm+ for 4less than or equal tomless than or equal to10 (193 nm ionization) and CumO1,2 (355 nm ionization) for copper oxide samples. Neutral cluster fragmentation due to multiphoton processes seems mainly to be of the form CumOm,m-1-->CumOm/2,m/2+1. Neutral cluster growth mechanisms are discussed based on the cluster yield from different samples (e.g., Cu metal, CuO powder, and Cu2O powder). (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.