Resonant two-photon ionization spectroscopy of Al atoms and dimers solvated in helium nanodroplets

Electron diffraction of foam-like clusters between xenon and helium in superfluid helium droplets

We report electron diffraction results of xenon clusters formed in superfluid helium droplets, with droplet sizes in the range of 105-106 atoms/droplet and xenon clusters from a few to a few hundred atoms. Under four different experimental conditions, the diffraction profiles can be fitted using four atom pairs of Xe. For the two experiments performed with higher helium contributions, the fittings with one pair of Xe-He and three pairs of Xe-Xe distances are statistically preferred compared with four pairs of Xe-Xe distances, while the other two experiments exhibit the opposite preference. In addition to the shortest pair distances corresponding to the van der Waals distances of Xe-He and Xe-Xe, the longer distances are in the range of the different arrangements of Xe-He-Xe and Xe-He-He-Xe. The number of independent atom pairs is too many for the small xenon clusters and too few for the large clusters. We consider these results evidence of xenon foam structures, with helium atoms stuck between Xe atoms. This possibility is confirmed by helium time-dependent density functional calculations. When the impact parameter of the second xenon atom is a few Angstroms or longer, the second xenon atom fails to penetrate the solvation shell of the first atom, resulting in a dimer with a few He atoms in between the two Xe atoms. In addition, our results for larger droplets point toward a multi-center growth process of dopant atoms or molecules, which is in agreement with previous proposals from theoretical calculations and experimental results.

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.

Formation of a long-lived cyclic isomer of ethylenedione

A century of unsuccessful attempts to identify the neutral ethylenedione molecule combined with the results of quantum-chemical computations resulted in the conclusion on the instability of this molecule.

Photoinduced Molecule Formation of Spatially Separated Atoms on Helium Nanodroplets

Besides the use as cold matrix for spectroscopic studies, superfluid helium droplets have served as a cold environment for the synthesis of molecules and clusters. Since vibrational frequencies of molecules in helium droplets exhibit almost no shift compared to the free molecule values, one could assume the solvated particles move frictionless and undergo a reaction as soon as their paths cross. There have been a few unexplained observations that seemed to indicate cases of two species on one droplet not forming bonds but remaining isolated. In this work, we performed a systematic study of helium droplets doped with one rubidium and one strontium atom showing that besides a reaction to RbSr, there is a probability of finding separated Rb and Sr atoms on one droplet that only react after electronic excitation. Our results further indicate that ground-state Sr atoms can reside at the surface as well as inside the droplet.

Electron impact ionization and multiphoton ionization of doped superfluid helium droplets: A comparison

We compare characteristics of electron impact ionization (EI) and multiphoton ionization (MPI) of doped superfluid helium droplets using the same droplet source. Selected dopant ion fragments from the two ionization schemes demonstrate different dependence on the doping pressure, which could be attributed to the different ionization mechanisms. While EI directly ionizes helium atoms in a droplet therefore has higher yields for bigger droplets (within a limited size range), MPI is insensitive to the helium in a droplet and is only dependent on the number of dopant molecules. The optimal timing of the ionization pulse also varies with the doping pressure, implying a velocity slip among different sized droplets. Calculations of the doping statistics and ionization probabilities qualitatively agree with the experimental data. Our results offer a word of caution in interpreting the pressure and timing dependence of superfluid helium droplets, and we also devise a scheme in achieving a high degree of doping while limiting the contribution of dopant clusters.

Effect of kinetic energy on the doping efficiency of cesium cations into superfluid helium droplets

We present an experimental investigation of the effect of kinetic energy on the ion doping efficiency of superfluid helium droplets using cesium cations from a thermionic emission source. The kinetic energy of Cs(+) is controlled by the bias voltage of a collection grid collinearly arranged with the droplet beam. Efficient doping from ions with kinetic energies from 20 eV up to 480 V has been observed in different sized helium droplets. The relative ion doping efficiency is determined by both the kinetic energy of the ions and the average size of the droplet beam. At a fixed source temperature, the number of doped droplets increases with increasing grid voltage, while the relative ion doping efficiency decreases. This result implies that not all ions are captured upon encountering with a sufficiently large droplet, a deviation from the near unity doping efficiency for closed shell neutral molecules. We propose that this drop in ion doping efficiency with kinetic energy is related to the limited deceleration rate inside a helium droplet. When the source temperature changes from 14 K to 17 K, the relative ion doping efficiency decreases rapidly, perhaps due to the lack of viable sized droplets. The size distribution of the Cs(+)-doped droplet beam can be measured by deflection and by energy filtering. The observed doped droplet size is about 5 × 10(6) helium atoms when the source temperature is between 14 K and 17 K.