Transfer of vibrational energy in nitrogen clusters doped with O2: New evidence for the origin of quantum effects in the metastable decay series of (N2)n+*

✍ Scribed by G. Walder; C. Winkler; T.D. Märk

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 496 KB
• Volume: 157
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-2614
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-2614(89)87238-0

✦ Synopsis

The decomposition of metastable (Nz):', ((N,),Oz) +* and (0,):'

Ions (n up to 10) has been studied quantitatively with a double-focusing sector field mass spectrometer as a function of cluster size n, and the number of evaporated neutral monomers p (with p up to n -1 for each cluster ion series). Whereas (N,), +* cluster ions show the known oscillatory pattern in the evaporation probability versus the number ofevaporated monomers (attributed to radiationless relaxation of vibrationally excited Nz molecules in clusters), nitrogen cluster ions doped with one 0, molecule do not show this behavior. In accordance with observations in liquids, this finding is interpreted as being due to an increased relaxation rate in the presence of the 0, dopant.