Structure and properties of Nen+;clusters from a diatomics-in-molecules approach

A parallel tempering based study of Coulombic explosion and identification of dissociating fragments in charged noble gas clusters

In this communication, we would like to test the feasibility of a parallel tempering based study of dissociation in dicationic noble gas clusters, namely, Ar(n)(2+), Kr(n)(2+), and Xe(n)(2+), where "n" is the size of the cluster units. We would like to find out the correct limit for sizes of each of these systems, above which the clusters stay intact as a single unit and does not dissociate into fragments by the process of Coulomb explosion. Moreover, we would also like to, for a specific case, i.e., Ar(n)(2+), study in detail the fragmentation patterns and point out the switchover from the non-fission way to the fission mechanism of dissociation. In all these calculations, we would like to analyse, how close we are in our predictions with that of experimental results. As a further check on the dissociating patterns found out by parallel tempering, we also conduct basin hopping based study on representative sizes of the clusters and find that parallel tempering, as used for this present work as an optimizer, is able to predict correct features when compared with other celebrated methods like the basin hopping algorithm.

Fragmentation of ionized doped helium nanodroplets: theoretical evidence for a dopant ejection mechanism

We report a theoretical study of the effect induced by a helium nanodroplet environment on the fragmentation dynamics of a dopant. The dopant is an ionized neon cluster Ne(n) (+) (n=4-6) surrounded by a helium nanodroplet composed of 100 atoms. A newly designed mixed quantum/classical approach is used to take into account both the large helium cluster zero-point energy due to the light mass of the helium atoms and all the nonadiabatic couplings between the Ne(n) (+) potential-energy surfaces. The results reveal that the intermediate ionic dopant can be ejected from the droplet, possibly with some helium atoms still attached, thereby reducing the cooling power of the droplet. Energy relaxation by helium atom evaporation and dissociation, the other mechanism which has been used in most interpretations of doped helium cluster dynamics, also exhibits new features. The kinetic energy distribution of the neutral monomer fragments can be fitted to the sum of two Boltzmann distributions, one with a low kinetic energy and the other with a higher kinetic energy. This indicates that cooling by helium atom evaporation is more efficient than was believed so far, as suggested by recent experiments. The results also reveal the predominance of Ne(2) (+) and He(q)Ne(2) (+) fragments and the absence of bare Ne(+) fragments, in agreement with available experimental data (obtained for larger helium nanodroplets). Moreover, the abundance in fragments with a trimeric neon core is found to increase with the increase in dopant size. Most of the fragmentation is achieved within 10 ps and the only subsequent dynamical process is the relaxation of hot intermediate He(q)Ne(2) (+) species to Ne(2) (+) by helium atom evaporation. The dependence of the ionic fragment distribution on the parent ion electronic state reached by ionization is also investigated. It reveals that He(q)Ne(+) fragments are produced only from the highest electronic state, whereas He(q)Ne(2) (+) fragments originate from all the electronic states. Surprisingly, the highest electronic states also lead to fragments that still contain the original ionic dopant species. A mechanism is conjectured to explain this fragmentation inhibition.

Isomerization dynamics and thermodynamics of ionic argon clusters

The dynamics and thermodynamics of small Ar(n) (+) clusters, n=3, 6, and 9, are investigated using molecular dynamics (MD) and exchange Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. A diatomic-in-molecule Hamiltonian provides an accurate model for the electronic ground state potential energy surface. The microcanonical caloric curves calculated from MD and MC methods are shown to agree with each other, provided that the rigorous conservation of angular momentum is accounted for in the phase space density of the MC simulations. The previously proposed projective partition of the kinetic energy is used to assist MD simulations in interpreting the cluster dynamics in terms of inertial, internal, and external modes. The thermal behavior is correlated with the nature of the charged core in the cluster by computing a dedicated charge localization order parameter. We also perform systematic quenches to establish a connection with the various isomers. We find that the Ar(3) (+) cluster is very stable in its linear ground state geometry up to about 300 K, and then isomerizes to a T-shaped isomer in which a quasineutral atom lies around a charged dimer. In Ar(6) (+) and Ar(9) (+), the covalent trimer core is solvated by neutral atoms, and the weakly bound solvent shell melts at much lower energies, occasionally leading to a tetramer or pentamer core with weakly charged extremities. At high energies the core itself becomes metastable and the cluster transforms into Ar(2) (+) solvated by a fluid of neutral argon atoms.

Fragmentation dynamics of argon clusters (Arn, n=2 to 11) following electron-impact ionization: Modeling and comparison with experiment

The fragmentation dynamics of argon clusters ionized by electron impact is investigated for initial cluster sizes up to n = 11 atoms. The dynamics of the argon atoms is modeled using a mixed quantum-classical method in which the nuclei are treated classically and the transitions between electronic states quantum mechanically. The potential-energy surfaces are derived from a diatomics-in-molecules model with the addition of the induced dipole-induced dipole and spin-orbit interactions. The results show extensive and fast fragmentation. The dimer is the most abundant ionic fragment, with a proportion increasing from 66% for n = 2 to a maximum of 95% for n = 6 and then decreasing down to 67% for n = 11. The next abundant fragment is the monomer for n < 7 and the trimer otherwise. The parent ion dissociation lifetimes are all in the range of 1 ps. Long-lived trajectories appear for initial cluster sizes of seven and higher, and favor the formation of the larger fragments (trimers and tetramers). Our results show quantitative agreement with available experimental results concerning the extensive character of the fragmentation: Ar+ and Ar2(+) are the only ionic fragments for sizes up to five atoms; their overall proportion is in quantitative agreement for all the studied sizes; Ar2(+) is the main fragment for all sizes; stable Ar3(+) fragments only appear for n > or = 5, and their proportion increases smoothly with cluster size from there. However, the individual ionic monomer and dimer fragment proportions differ. The experimental ones exhibit oscillations with initial cluster size, with a slight tendency to decrease on average for the monomer. In contrast our results show a monotonic, systematic evolution, similar to what was found in our earlier studies on neon and krypton clusters. Several hypotheses are discussed in order to find the origin of this discrepancy. Finally, the metastable II(1/2)u and II(1/2)g states of Ar2(+) are found to decay with a lifetime of 3.5 and 0.1 ps, respectively, due to spin-orbit coupling. The difference with the commonly accepted microsecond range value for rare-gas dimer ions could originate from the role of autoionizing states in the formation of the parent ions.

Modelization of the fragmentation dynamics of krypton clusters (Krn,n=2–11) following electron impact ionization

We present the first prediction for the fragmentation dynamics following electron impact ionization of neutral krypton clusters from 2 to 11 atoms. Fragment proportions and parent ion lifetimes are deduced from a molecular dynamics with quantum transitions study in which the nuclei are treated classically and the transitions between electronic states quantum mechanically. The potential-energy surfaces are derived from a diatomics-in-molecules model to which induced dipole-induced dipole and spin-orbit interactions are added. The results show surprisingly fast and extensive fragmentation for clusters of such a heavy atom, although not as extensive as in the case of neon clusters studied previously [D. Bonhommeau et al., J. Chem. Phys. 123, 54316 (2005)]. The parent ion lifetimes range from 2.8 to 0.7 ps, and the most abundant fragment is Kr(2) (+) for all studied sizes, followed by Kr(+) for sizes smaller than 7 atoms and by Kr(3) (+) for larger sizes. Trimer and larger fragments are found to originate from the lower electronic states of parent ions. The comparison with preliminary results from experiments on size-selected neutral clusters conducted by Steinbach et al. (private communication) reveal a good agreement on the extensive character of the fragmentation. It is checked that the additional internal energy brought by the helium scattering technique used for size selection does not affect the fragment proportions. In addition, the existence of long-lived trajectories is revealed, and they are found to be more and more important for larger cluster sizes and to favor the stabilization of larger fragments. The implications of this work for microsecond-scale dynamics of ionized rare-gas clusters are discussed. In particular, given the extent of fragmentation of the parent clusters and the fast kinetics of the whole process, the small cluster ions that exhibit a monomer loss in the microsecond time window must originate from much larger neutral precursors. The decay rate of the II(12)(u) state of the ionic dimer Kr(2) (+) by spin-orbit coupling is found to be of the order of 3 ps, in contrast to the expected tens of microseconds, but only reasonably faster than the corresponding state of HeNe(+). Finally, the spin-orbit interaction strongly affects both the Kr(+)Kr(2) (+) ratio and some of the characteristic times of the dynamics, especially for smaller sizes, but not the overall dependence of the fragment proportions as a function of cluster size.

Dissociative ionization of neon clusters Nen, n=3 to 14: A realistic multisurface dynamical study

The molecular dynamics with quantum transitions (MDQT) method is applied to study the fragmentation dynamics of neon clusters following vertical ionization of neutral clusters with 3 to 14 atoms. The motion of the neon atoms is treated classically, while transitions between the adiabatic electronic states of the ionic clusters are treated quantum mechanically. The potential energy surfaces are described by the diatomics-in-molecules model in a minimal basis set consisting of the effective 2p orbitals on each neon atom for the missing electron. The fragmentation mechanism is found to be rather explosive, with a large number of events where several atoms simultaneously dissociate. This is in contrast with evaporative atom by atom fragmentation. The dynamics are highly nonadiabatic, especially at shorter times and for the larger clusters. Initial excitation of the neutral clusters does not affect the fragmentation pattern. The influence of spin-orbit coupling is also examined and found to be small, except for the smaller size systems for which the proportion of the Ne+ fragment is increased up to 43%. From the methodological point of view, most of the usual momentum adjustment methods at hopping events are shown to induce nonconservation of the total nuclear angular momentum because of the nonzero electronic to rotation coupling in these systems. A new method for separating out this coupling and enforcing the conservation of the total nuclear momentum is proposed. It is applied here to the MDQT method of Tully but it is very general and can be applied to other surface hopping methods.

Fragmentation dynamics of ionized neon trimer inside helium nanodroplets: A theoretical study

We report a theoretical study of the fragmentation dynamics of Ne(3) (+) inside helium nanodroplets, following vertical ionization of the neutral neon trimer. The motion of the neon atoms is treated classically, while transitions between the electronic states of the ionic cluster are treated quantum mechanically. A diatomics-in-molecules description of the potential energy surfaces is used, in a minimal basis set consisting of three effective p orbitals on each neon atom for the missing electron. The helium environment is modeled by a friction force acting on the neon atoms when their speed exceeds the Landau velocity. A reasonable range of values for the corresponding friction coefficient is obtained by comparison with existing experimental measurements.

Probing electronic states of Ne2+ and Ar2+ by measuring kinetic-energy-release distributions

Dissociative decay of metastable, electronically excited neon and argon dimer ions produces fragment ions with strikingly dissimilar kinetic-energy-release distributions. The distributions have been modeled based on ab initio calculations of potential energy curves. The unusual bimodal distribution observed for dissociation of Ne2+ arises from competition between radiative and nonradiative decay of the long-lived II(1/2)(u) state. For Ar2+, however, electronic predissociation is insignificant.

Rotational quenching in ionic systems at ultracold temperatures

The behavior of the rotational quenching for a molecular ion in collision with closed-shell neutral gases is investigated. We confirm that Wigner's threshold law for inelastic scattering holds in the presence of a long-range interaction due to polarization forces decreasing as the inverse fourth power of the distance but find that, because of the contributions of the higher angular momenta, its range of applicability is markedly reduced when compared to the scattering by neutral species. The calculations of the quenching cross sections make evident the special features of ionic systems at ultralow collision energies and yield rate coefficients of the order of 10(-9) x cm(3) x s(-1), much larger than those found for the quenching of neutral molecules.