A continuous liquid flow of an aqueous solution of phenol (Ph) in a vacuum (a liquid beam) was irradiated with a pulsed IR laser at 3 mum, which was resonant to the OH-stretching vibration of the solvent water molecules. Phenol molecules ejected from the liquid beam were selectively ionized at about 0.5 mm above it by a pulsed UV laser (270-280 nm). The photoions thus produced were extracted in a pulsed electric field with a given residence time after the photoionization for mass analysis. It was shown that photoions, Ph+, were solvated into Ph+(H2O)(n) in a dense cloud of water vapor ejected from the liquid beam by IR irradiation. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.