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Title: Communication: Determining the structure of the N{sub 2}Ar van der Waals complex with laser-based channel-selected Coulomb explosion

Journal Article · · Journal of Chemical Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4871205· OSTI ID:22253173
; ;  [1]; ; ; ;  [1]; ;  [2]
  1. State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, Department of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China)
  2. State Key Laboratory of Molecular Reaction Dynamics, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190 (China)

We experimentally reconstructed the structure of the N{sub 2}Ar van der Waals complex with the technique of laser-based channel-selected Coulomb explosion imaging. The internuclear distance between the N{sub 2} center of mass and the Ar atom, i.e., the length of the van der Waals bond, was determined to be 3.88 Å from the two-body explosion channels. The angle between the van der Waals bond and the N{sub 2} principal axis was determined to be 90° from the three-body explosion channels. The reconstructed structure was contrasted with our high level ab initio calculations. The agreement demonstrated the potential application of laser-based Coulomb explosion in imaging transient molecular structure, particularly for floppy van der Waals complexes, whose structures remain difficult to be determined by conventional spectroscopic methods.

OSTI ID:
22253173
Journal Information:
Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 140, Issue 14; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-9606
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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