Iron-benzene cluster anions, Fe(n)Bz(m)- (n = 1-7, m = 1-4), were generated via laser vaporization and studied using mass spectrometry, anion photoelectron spectroscopy and in one case by density functional theory. Based on these studies, we propose that Fe(1)Bz(1)- and Fe(1)Bz(1) as well as Fe(2)Bz(1)- and Fe(2)Bz(1) exhibit half-sandwich structures, that Fe(1)Bz(2)- and Fe(1)Bz(2), Fe(2)Bz(2)- and Fe(2)Bz(2), as well as Fe(3)Bz(2) and Fe(4)Bz(2) are sandwich structures, and that Fe(2)Bz(3)(-) and Fe(2)Bz(3) and larger species form 'rice-ball' structures which in each case consist of benzene molecules surrounding an iron cluster core. (C) 2008 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.