We investigated the interaction of rare-gas clusters with intense EUV-FEL pulses in the 51-62-nm region by using the SPring-8 Compact SASE Source (SCSS) test facility in Japan. For this purpose, we developed a pulsed cluster source consisting of a solenoid-type pulsed valve and a liquid helium cryostat. The interaction of giant xenon clusters with intense FEL pulses was investigated by detecting photoions using a momentum imaging spectrometer. We observed the emission of energetic highly charged ions when xenon cluster beam (< N > similar to 10,000) was irradiated by intense FEL pulses of wavelength 62 nm. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier By. All rights reserved.