Inelastic Scattering of CO with He: Polarization Dependent Differential State-to-State Cross Sections

A joint theoretical and experimental study of state-to-state rotationally inelastic polarization dependent differential cross sections (PDDCSs) for CO (v = 0, j = 0, 1, 2) molecules colliding with helium is reported for collision energies of 513 and 840 cm(-1). In a crossed molecular beam experiment, velocity map imaging (VMI) with state-selective detection by (2 + 1) and (1 + 1') resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) is used to probe rotational excitation of CO due to scattering. By taking account of the known fractions of the j = 0, 1, and 2 states of CO in the rotationally cold molecular beam (Trot ≈ 3 K), close-coupling theory based on high-quality ab initio potential energy surfaces for the CO-He interaction is used to simulate the differential cross sections for the mixed initial states. With polarization-sensitive 1 + 1' REMPI detection and a direct analysis procedure described by Suits et al. ( J. Phys, Chem. A 2015 , 119 , 5925 ), alignment moments are extracted from the images and the latter are compared with images simulated by theory using the calculated DCS and alignment moments. In general, good agreement of theory with the experimental results is found, indicating the reliability of the experiment in reproducing state-to-state differential and polarization-dependent differential cross sections.

An exchange-Coulomb model potential energy surface for the Ne-CO interaction. II. Molecular beam scattering and bulk gas phenomena in Ne-CO mixtures

Four potential energy surfaces are of current interest for the Ne-CO interaction. Two are high-level fully ab initio surfaces obtained a decade ago using symmetry-adapted perturbation theory and supermolecule coupled-cluster methods. The other two are very recent exchange-Coulomb (XC) model potential energy surfaces constructed by using ab initio Heitler-London interaction energies and literature long range dispersion and induction energies, followed by the determination of a small number of adjustable parameters to reproduce a selected subset of pure rotational transition frequencies for the (20)Ne-(12)C(16)O van der Waals cluster. Testing of the four potential energy surfaces against a wide range of available experimental microwave, millimeter-wave, and mid-infrared Ne-CO transition frequencies indicated that the XC potential energy surfaces gave results that were generally far superior to the earlier fully ab initio surfaces. In this paper, two XC model surfaces and the two fully ab initio surfaces are tested for their abilities to reproduce experiment for a wide range of nonspectroscopic Ne-CO gas mixture properties. The properties considered here are relative integral cross sections and the angle dependence of rotational state-to-state differential cross sections, rotational relaxation rate constants for CO(v=2) in Ne-CO mixtures at T=296 K, pressure broadening of two pure rotational lines and of the rovibrational lines in the CO fundamental and first overtone transitions at 300 K, and the temperature and, where appropriate, mole fraction dependencies of the interaction second virial coefficient, the binary diffusion coefficient, the interaction viscosity, the mixture shear viscosity and thermal conductivity coefficients, and the thermal diffusion factor. The XC model potential energy surfaces give results that lie within or very nearly within the experimental uncertainties for all properties considered, while the coupled-cluster ab initio surface gives results that agree similarly well for all but one of the properties considered. When the present comparisons are combined with the ability to give accurate spectroscopic transition frequencies for the Ne-CO van der Waals complex, only the XC potential energy surfaces give results that agree well with all extant experimental data for the Ne-CO interaction.

Predicted bound states and microwave spectrum of N2-He van der Waals complexes

Numerical calculations show that four modern potential energy surfaces for N(2)-He all support 18 bound intermolecular states for the homonuclear isotopologues (14,14)N(2)-(4)He and (15,15)N(2)-(4)He, and 12 (or 13, for one surface) truly bound states for (14,15)N(2)-He. This contradicts a recent statement [Patel et al., J. Chem. Phys. 119, 909 (2003)] that one of these surfaces supports no bound states, and it yields predictions for 27 allowed pure rotational transitions among the truly bound states of the homonuclear isotopologues of this complex.

An exchange-Coulomb model potential energy surface for the Ne-CO interaction. I. Calculation of Ne-CO van der Waals spectra

Exchange-Coulomb model potential energy surfaces have been developed for the Ne-CO interaction. The initial model is a three-dimensional potential energy surface based upon computed Heitler-London interaction energies and literature results for the long-range induction and dispersion energies, all as functions of interspecies distance, the orientation of CO relative to the interspecies axis, and the bond length of the CO molecule. Both a rigid-rotor model potential energy surface, obtained by setting the CO bond length equal to its experimental spectroscopic equilibrium value, and a vibrationally averaged model potential energy surface, obtained by averaging the stretching dependence over the ground vibrational motion of the CO molecule, have been constructed from the full data set. Adjustable parameters in each model potential energy surface have been determined through fitting a selected subset of pure rotational transition frequencies calculated for the (20)Ne-(12)C(12)O isotopolog to precisely known experimental values. Both potential energy surfaces provide calculated results for a wide range of available experimental microwave, millimeter-wave, and midinfrared Ne-CO transition frequencies that are generally far superior to those obtained using the best current literature potential energy surfaces. The vibrationally averaged CO ground state potential energy surface, employed together with a potential energy surface obtained from it by replacing the ground vibrational state average of the CO stretching dependence of the potential energy surface by an average over the first excited CO vibrational state, has been found to be particularly useful for computing and/or interpreting mid-IR transition frequencies in the Ne-CO dimer.

Accuracy of recent potential energy surfaces for the He–N2 interaction. I. Virial and bulk transport coefficients

A new exchange-Coulomb semiempirical model potential energy surface for the He-N2 interaction has been developed. Together with two recent high-level ab initio potential energy surfaces, it has been tested for the reliability of its predictions of second-virial coefficients and bulk transport phenomena in binary mixtures of He and N2. The agreement with the relevant available measurements is generally within experimental uncertainty for the exchange-Coulomb surface and the ab initio surface of Patel et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 119, 909 (2003)], but with slightly poorer agreement for the earlier ab initio surface of Hu and Thakkar [J. Chem. Phys. 104, 2541 (1996)].

New exchange-Coulomb N2-Ar potential-energy surface and its comparison with other recent N2-Ar potential-energy surfaces

The reliability of five N2-Ar potential-energy surfaces in representing the N2-Ar interaction has been investigated by comparing their abilities to reproduce a variety of experimental results, including interaction second viral coefficients, bulk transport properties, relaxation phenomena, differential scattering cross sections, and the microwave and infrared spectra of the van der Waals complexes. Four of the surfaces are the result of high-level ab initio quantal calculations; one of them utilized fine tuning by fitting to microwave data. To date, these four potential-energy surfaces have only been tested against experimental microwave data. The fifth potential-energy surface, based upon the exchange-Coulomb potential-energy model for the interaction of closed-shell species, is developed herein: it is a combination of a damped dispersion energy series and ab initio calculations of the Heitler-London interaction energy, and has adjustable parameters determined by requiring essentially simultaneous agreement with selected quality interaction second viral coefficient and microwave data. Comparisons are also made with the predictions of three other very good literature potential-energy surfaces, including the precursor of the new exchange-Coulomb potential-energy surface developed here. Based upon an analysis of a large body of information, the new exchange-Coulomb and microwave-tuned ab initio potential-energy surfaces provide the best representations of the N2-Ar interaction; nevertheless, the other potential-energy surfaces examined still have considerable merit with respect to the prediction of specific properties of the N2-Ar van der Waals complex. Of the two recommended surfaces, the new exchange-Coulomb surface is preferred on balance due to its superior predictions of the effective cross sections related to various relaxation phenomena, and to its reliable, and relatively simple, representation of the long-range part of the potential-energy surface. Moreover, the flexibility still inherent in the exchange-Coulomb potential form can be further exploited, if required, in future studies of the N2-Ar interaction.

A hierarchical family of three-dimensional potential energy surfaces for He-CO

A hierarchical family of five three-dimensional potential energy surfaces has been developed for the benchmark He-CO system. Four surfaces were obtained at the coupled cluster singles and doubles level of theory with a perturbational estimate of triple excitations, CCSD(T), and range in quality from the doubly augmented double-zeta basis set to the complete basis set (CBS) limit. The fifth corresponds to an approximate CCSDT/CBS surface (CCSD with iterative triples/CBS, denoted CBS+corr). The CBS limit results were obtained by pointwise basis set extrapolations of the individual counterpoise-corrected interaction energies. For each surface, over 1000 interaction energies were accurately interpolated using a reproducing kernel Hilbert space approach with an R-6+R-7 asymptotic form. In each case, both three-dimensional and effective two-dimensional surfaces were developed. In standard Jacobi coordinates, the final CBS+corr surface has a global minimum at rCO=2.1322a0,R=6.418a0, and gamma=70.84 degrees with a well depth of -22.34 cm-1. The other four surfaces have well depths ranging from -14.83 cm-1 [CCSD(T)/d-aug-cc-pVDZ] to -22.02 cm-1 [CCSD(T)/CBS]. For each of these surfaces the infrared spectrum has been accurately calculated and compared to experiment, as well as to previous theoretical and empirical surfaces. The final CBS+corr surface exhibits root-mean-square and maximum errors compared to experiment (4He) of just 0.03 and 0.04 cm-1, respectively, for all 42 transitions and is the most accurate ab initio surface to date for this system. Other quantities investigated include the interaction second virial coefficient, the integral cross sections, and thermal rate coefficients for rotational relaxation of CO by He, and rate coefficients for CO vibrational relaxation by He. All the observable quantities showed a smooth convergence with respect to the quality of the underlying interaction surface.

Helium clusters seeded with CO molecules: New results for HeN–C1813O and the approach to the nanodroplet limit

Infrared spectra of helium clusters seeded with doubly substituted carbon monoxide molecules, 13C18O, have been studied in order to complement recent helium nanocluster results and to determine whether additional isotopic data would help to separate vibrational and rotational contributions to the observed transitions. The experiments were made by direct infrared absorption in pulsed supersonic jet expansions using a tunable diode laser probe in the region of the fundamental band (approximately 2045 cm-1 for 13C18O). Even with data on the R0 transitions from four CO isotopomers, it was found that a clear and consistent separation of vibration and rotation could not be achieved for HeN-CO clusters in the size range N approximately 10-20. Isotope shifts observed for clusters with 13C18O (relative to 12C16O) were found to be close to the sums of the shifts previously determined for 13C16O and 12C18O. The new measurements generally supported previous assignments of cluster size, but some modifications for the range N=14-16 are suggested here. New measurements for HeN-12C16O under conditions favoring larger clusters (high backing pressure and low jet temperature) showed that individual transitions could be resolved even at N approximately 50. For larger clusters, a partly resolved "lump" of transitions was observed to approach the nanodroplet limit.

Close-coupling study of rotational energy transfer of CO (υ=2) by collisions with He atoms

Quantum close-coupling scattering calculations of rotational energy transfer in the vibrationally excited CO due to collisions with He atom are presented for collision energies between 10(-5) and approximately 1000 cm-1 with CO being initially in the vibrational level upsilon=2 and rotational levels j=0,1,4, and 6. The He-CO interaction potential of Heijmen et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 107, 9921 (1997)] was adopted for the calculations. Cross sections for rovibrational transitions and state-to-state rotational energy transfer from selected initial rotational levels were computed and compared with recent measurements of Carty et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 121, 4671 (2004)] and available theoretical results. Comparison in all cases is found to be excellent, providing a stringent test for the scattering calculations as well as the reliability of the He-CO interaction potential by Heijmen et al.

Low-Temperature Rotational Relaxation of CO in Self-Collisions and in Collisions with Ne and He

The low-temperature rotational relaxation of CO in self-collisions and in collisions with the rare-gas atoms Ne and He has been investigated in supersonic expansions with a combination of resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) spectroscopy and time-of-flight techniques. For the REMPI detection of CO, a novel 2 + 1' scheme has been employed through the A(1)Pi state of CO. From the measured data, average cross sections for rotational relaxation have been derived as a function of temperature in the range 5-100 K. For CO-Ne and CO-He, the relaxation cross sections grow, respectively, from values of approximately 20 and 7 A(2) at 100 K to values of approximately 65-70 and approximately 20 A(2) in the 5-20 K temperature range. The cross section for the relaxation of CO-CO grows from a value close to 40 A(2) at 100 K to a maximum of 60 A(2) at 20 K and then decreases again to 40 A(2) at 5 K. These results are qualitatively similar to those obtained previously with the same technique for N(2)-N(2), N(2)-Ne, and N(2)-He collisions, although in the low-temperature range (T < 20 K) the CO relaxation cross sections are significantly larger than those for N(2). Some discrepancies have been found between the present relaxation cross sections for CO-CO and CO-He and the values derived from electron-induced fluorescence experiments.

A reliable new three-dimensional potential energy surface for H2–Kr

An improved three-dimensional potential energy surface for the H(2)-Kr system is determined from a direct fit of new infrared spectroscopic data for H(2)-Kr and D(2)-Kr to a potential energy function form based on the exchange-Coulomb model for the intermolecular interaction energy. These fits require repetitive, highly accurate simulations of the observed spectra, and both the strength of the potential energy anisotropy and the accuracy of the new data make the "secular equation perturbation theory" method used in previous analyses of H(2)-(rare gas) spectra inadequate for the present work. To address this problem, an extended version of the "iterative secular equation" method was developed which implements direct Hellmann-Feynman theorem calculation of the partial derivatives of eigenvalues with respect to parameters of the Hamiltonian which are required for the fits.

High resolution infrared spectra of helium clusters seeded with isotopic carbon monoxide, HeN-13C 16O and HeN-12C 18O

Infrared spectra of isotopically substituted HeN-CO clusters (1 < N < 19) have been studied in order to extend the original results on the normal isotope. The same two series of R(0) transitions were observed, correlating with the a- and b-type transitions of He1-CO, with only small shifts in relative position. The previously obscured a-type line for He6-CO was detected. Examination of the small shifts among isotopomers showed remarkably smooth behavior, except in the "unstable" regions around N=7 (b-type series) and 15 (a-type series). The overall results firmly support the assignments and analysis given for the normal isotope.

State-to-state rotational rate constants for CO+He: Infrared double resonance measurements and simulation of the data using the SAPT theoretical potential energy surface

An extensive data set of 54 time-resolved pump-probe measurements was used to examine CO + He rotational energy transfer within the CO v = 2 rotational manifold. Rotational levels in the range Ji = 2-9 were excited and collisional energy transfer of population to the levels Jf = 1-10 was monitored. The resulting data set was analyzed by fitting to numerical solutions of the master equation. State-to-state rate constant matrices were generated using fitting law functions and ab initio theoretical calculations that employed the SAPT potential energy surface of Heijmen et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 107, 9921 (1997)]. Fitting laws based on the modified exponential gap (MEG), statistical power exponential gap (SPEG), and energy corrected sudden with exponential power (ECS-EP) models all yielded acceptable simulations of the kinetic data, as did the theoretical rate constants. However, the latter were unique in their ability to reproduce both our kinetic data and the pressure broadening coefficients for CO + He. These results provide an impressive demonstration of the quality of the symmetry adapted perturbation theory (SAPT) potential energy surface.