Considerable matrix shift in the electronic transitions of helium-solvated cesium dimer cation Cs2He

Electronic and vibrational spectroscopies of aromatic clusters with He in a supersonic jet: The case of neutral and cationic phenol-Hen (n = 1 and 2)

Van der Waals clusters composed of He and aromatic molecules provide fundamental information about intermolecular interactions in weakly bound systems. In this study, phenol-helium clusters (PhOH-Hen with n ≤ 2) are characterized for the first time by UV and IR spectroscopies. The S1 ← S0 origin and ionization energy both show small but additive shifts, suggesting π-bound structures of these clusters, a conclusion supported by rotational contour analyses of the S1 origin bands. The OH stretching vibrations of the PhOH moiety in the clusters match with those of bare PhOH in both the S0 and D0 states, illustrating the negligible perturbation of the He atoms on the molecular vibration. Matrix shifts induced by He attachment are discussed based on the observed band positions with the help of complementary quantum chemical calculations. For comparison, the UV and ionization spectra of PhOH-Ne are reported as well.

Chemistry and physics of dopants embedded in helium droplets

Helium droplets represent a cold inert matrix, free of walls with outstanding properties to grow complexes and clusters at conditions that are perfect to simulate cold and dense regions of the interstellar medium. At sub-Kelvin temperatures, barrierless reactions triggered by radicals or ions have been observed and studied by optical spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. The present review summarizes developments of experimental techniques and methods and recent results they enabled.

Microsolvation of H2O+, H3O+, and CH3OH2+ by He in a cryogenic ion trap: structure of solvation shells

Due to the weak interactions of He atoms with neutral molecules and ions, the preparation of size-selected clusters for the spectroscopic characterization of their structures, energies, and large amplitude motions is a challenging task. Herein, we generate H₂O⁺He_n (n ≤ 9) and H₃O⁺He_n (n ≤ 5) clusters by stepwise addition of He atoms to mass-selected ions stored in a cryogenic 22-pole ion trap held at 5 K. The population of the clusters as a function of n provides insight into the structure of the first He solvation shell around these ions given by the anisotropy of the cation-He interaction potential. To rationalize the observed cluster size distributions, the structural, energetic, and vibrational properties of the clusters are characterized by ab initio calculations up to the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ level. The cluster growth around both the open-shell H₂O⁺ and closed-shell H₃O⁺ ions begins by forming nearly linear and equivalent OH⋯He hydrogen bonds (H-bonds) leading to symmetric structures. The strength of these H-bonds decreases slightly with n due to noncooperative three-body induction forces and is weaker for H₃O⁺ than for H₂O⁺ due to both enhanced charge delocalization and reduced acidity of the OH protons. After filling all available H-bonded sites, addition of further He ligands around H₂O⁺ (n = 3-4) occurs at the electrophilic singly occupied 2p_z orbital of O leading to O⋯He p-bonds stabilized by induction and small charge transfer from H₂O⁺ to He. As this orbital is filled for H₃O⁺, He atoms occupy in the n = 4-6 clusters positions between the H-bonded He atoms, leading to a slightly distorted regular hexagon ring for n = 6. Comparison between H₃O⁺He_n and CH₃OH₂⁺He_n illustrates that CH₃ substitution substantially reduces the acidity of the OH protons, so that only clusters up to n = 2 can be observed. The structure of the solvation sub-shells is visible in both the binding energies and the predicted vibrational OH stretch and bend frequencies.

Size and Velocity Distribution of Negatively Charged Helium Nanodroplets

Precharged helium nanodroplets can be used in doping experiments with the advantage that they are amenable to size selection with electrostatic fields, therefore adding a useful tuning parameter for dopant growth. For all these applications, the knowledge of the size distribution of charged droplets is an essential parameter, which we have so far assumed would be equivalent to that of their neutral precursors. Here, this assumption is experimentally investigated for negatively charged clusters for temperatures between 4 and 9 K at a stagnation pressure of 2 MPa. We observe a dependency of the velocity of the droplets on mass per charge, especially at the lowest temperatures of the investigated range, and values 20% lower than those known from the literature. Below 6 K, a large deviation from the literature is also found for the average droplet sizes. This information has to be taken into consideration in future experiments where large, charged droplets are sought to produce large dopant clusters. Possible origins for this deviation are discussed in the text.

Electronic transitions in Rb2+ dimers solvated in helium

We have measured depletion spectra of the heteronuclear (85Rb87Rb+) dimer cation complexed with up to 10 He atoms. Two absorption bands are observed between 920 and 250 nm. The transition into the repulsive 12Σu+state of HeRb2+gives rise to a broad feature at 790 nm (12,650 cm−1); it exhibits a blueshift of 98 cm−1per added He atom. The transition into the bound 12Πustate of HeRb2+reveals vibrational structure with a band head at ≤ 15,522 cm−1, a harmonic constant of 26 cm−1, and a spin–orbit splitting of ≤ 183 cm−1. The band experiences an average redshift of − 38 cm−1per added He atom. Ab initio calculations rationalize the shape of the spectra and spectral shifts with respect to the number of helium atoms attached. For a higher number of solvating helium atoms, symmetric solvation on both ends of the Rb2+ion is predicted.