Infrared spectroscopy of carbo‐ions. IV. TheA 2Πu–X 2Σ+gelectronic transition of C−2

Autodetachment of Diatomic Carbon Anions from Long-Lived High-Rotation Quartet States

We show that strong molecular rotation drastically modifies the autodetachment of C_{2}^{-} ions in the lowest quartet electronic state a^{4}Σ_{u}^{+}. In the strong-rotation regime, levels of this state only decay by a process termed "rotationally assisted" autodetachment, whose theoretical description is worked out based on the nonlocal resonance model. For autodetachment linked with the exchange of six rotational quanta, the results reproduce a prominent, hitherto unexplained electron emission signal with a mean decay time near 3 ms, observed on stored C_{2}^{-} ions from a hot ion source.

State-Selective Observation of Radiative Cooling of Vibrationally Excited C2. J Phys Chem Lett 2020;11:10526-10531. [PMID: 33289570 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c03196]

We have observed radiative cooling of vibrationally excited C₂^- in the X²Σ_g⁺ electronic ground state via electronic transitions to near-degenerate low-lying vibrational levels of the A²Π_u electronic excited state. Combining an ion storage technique with high-resolution detachment spectroscopy, we were able to assign rovibronic transitions to the resulting complex spectra. The time evolution of the population at specific vibrational states was measured up to 60 ms, providing the first quantitative experimental support for the long-standing theoretical predictions.

EOM-CC guide to Fock-space travel: the C2 edition

Electronic structure calculations for C₂, C₂⁻, and C₂²⁻ using the CC/EOM-CC family of methods. Results illustrate that EOM-CCSD provides an attractive alternative to MR approaches.

Higher-order equation-of-motion coupled-cluster methods for electron attachment

High-order equation-of-motion coupled-cluster methods for electron attachment (EA-EOM-CC) have been implemented with the aid of the symbolic algebra program TCE into parallel computer programs. Two types of size-extensive truncation have been applied to the electron-attachment and cluster excitation operators: (1) the electron-attachment operator truncated after the 2p-1h, 3p-2h, or 4p-3h level in combination with the cluster excitation operator after doubles, triples, or quadruples, respectively, defining EA-EOM-CCSD, EA-EOM-CCSDT, or EA-EOM-CCSDTQ; (2) the combination of up to the 3p-2h electron-attachment operator and up to the double cluster excitation operator [EA-EOM-CCSD(3p-2h)] or up to 4p-3h and triples [EA-EOM-CCSDT(4p-3h)]. These methods, capable of handling electron attachment to open-shell molecules, have been applied to the electron affinities of NH and C2, the excitation energies of CH, and the spectroscopic constants of all these molecules with the errors due to basis sets of finite sizes removed by extrapolation. The differences in the electron affinities or excitation energies between EA-EOM-CCSD and experiment are frequently in excess of 2 eV for these molecules, which have severe multideterminant wave functions. Including higher-order operators, the EA-EOM-CC methods predict these quantities accurate to within 0.01 eV of experimental values. In particular, the 3p-2h electron-attachment and triple cluster excitation operators are significant for achieving this accuracy.

C3H3+ Isomers: Temperature Dependencies of Production in the H3+ Reaction with Allene and Loss by Dissociative Recombination with Electrons

A technique has been developed to simultaneously determine recombination rate coefficients, alpha e, and initial concentrations of ion types that coexist in a flowing afterglow plasma. This was tested using the H3(+) + allene reaction in which two different C3H3+ isomers are produced. Use of an electrostatic Langmuir probe enabled the C3H3+ isomer branching ratios for propargyl and cyclic C3H3+ from this allene reaction and their alpha e to be determined over the temperature range 172-489 K. The study showed that the cyclic C3H3+ to propargyl C3H3+ branching ratios from the allene reaction varied from 50/50 at 172 K to 18/82 at 489 K. Over this temperature range, the alpha e for both isomers change only slightly. The room temperature alpha e values for propargyl and cyclic C3H3+ are (1.15 +/- 0.2) x 10(-7) and (8.00 +/- 0.1) x 10(-7) cm3/s, respectively. The data are discussed relative to current theories and in relation to fuel-rich flame chemistry, interstellar molecular synthesis, and modeling of Titan's atmosphere.