Supersonic expansions

Figure A3.5.7. Schematic diagram of a selected ion flow drift tube with supersonic expansion ion source.

As with most methods for studying ion-molecule kinetics and dynamics, numerous variations exist. For low-energy processes, the collision cell can be replaced with a molecular beam perpendicular to the ion beam [106]. This greatly reduces the thennal energy spread of the reactant neutral. Another approach for low energies is to use a merged beam [103]. In this system the supersonic expansion is aimed at the tluoat of the octopole, and the ions are passed tluough... 

THz spectrum of such clusters fomred in a pulsed planar supersonic expansion [65],... 

Rare-gas clusters can be produced easily using supersonic expansion. They are attractive to study theoretically because the interaction potentials are relatively simple and dominated by the van der Waals interactions. The Lennard-Jones pair potential describes the stmctures of the rare-gas clusters well and predicts magic clusters with icosahedral stmctures [139, 140]. The first five icosahedral clusters occur at 13, 55, 147, 309 and 561 atoms and are observed in experiments of Ar, Kr and Xe clusters [1411. Small helium clusters are difficult to produce because of the extremely weak interactions between helium atoms. Due to the large zero-point energy, bulk helium is a quantum fluid and does not solidify under standard pressure. Large helium clusters, which are liquid-like, have been produced and studied by Toennies and coworkers [142]. Recent experiments have provided evidence of... 

Molecular clusters are weakly bound aggregates of stable molecules. Such clusters can be produced easily using supersonic expansion, and have been extensively studied by both electronic and vibrational spectroscopy [146,... 

Quite apart from the fullerene cluster molecules, numerous other molecular allotropes of carbon, C , have been discovered in the gases formed by the laser vaporization/supersonic expansion of graphite. The products are detected by mass... 

The H2O molecules are cooled in a supersonic expansion to a rotational temperature of 10K before photodissociation. The evidence for pathway competition is an odd-even intensity alteration in the OH product state distribution for rotational quantum numbers V = 33 45. This intensity alternation is attributed to quantum mechanical interference due to the N-dependent phase shifts that arise as the population passes through the two different conical intersections. 

We use laser photofragment spectroscopy to study the vibrational and electronic spectroscopy of ions. Our photofragment spectrometer is shown schematically in Eig. 2. Ions are formed by laser ablation of a metal rod, followed by ion molecule reactions, cool in a supersonic expansion and are accelerated into a dual TOE mass spectrometer. When they reach the reflectron, the mass-selected ions of interest are irradiated using one or more lasers operating in the infrared (IR), visible, or UV. Ions that absorb light can photodissociate, producing fragment ions that are mass analyzed and detected. Each of these steps will be discussed in more detail below, with particular emphasis on the ions of interest. 

The ability to detect discrete rovibronic spectral features attributed to transitions of two distinct conformers of the ground-state Rg XY complexes and to monitor changing populations as the expansion conditions are manipulated offered an opportunity to evaluate the concept of a thermodynamic equilibrium between the conformers within a supersonic expansion. Since continued changes in the relative intensities of the T-shaped and linear features was observed up to at least Z = 41 [41], the populations of the conformers of the He - lCl and He Br2 complexes are not kinetically trapped within a narrow region close to the nozzle orifice. We implemented a simple thermodynamic model that uses the ratios of the peak intensities of the conformer bands with changing temperature in the expansion to obtain experimental estimates of the relative binding energies of these complexes [39, 41]. 

Since the demonstration by Schumacher et al ) of the use of alkali metal vapor inclusion into a supersonic beam to produce clusters, there have been a number of attempts to generalize the approach. It has recently been recognized that instead of high temperature ovens, with their concommitant set of complex experimental problems, an intense pulsed laser beam focused on a target could be effectively used to produce metal atoms in the throat of a supersonic expansion valve. ) If these atoms are injected into a high pressure inert gas, such as helium, nucleation to produce clusters occurs. This development has as its most important result that clusters of virtually any material now can be produced and studied with relative ease. 

S. Willitsch, 1. M. Dyke, and F. Merkt, Generation and High-Resolution Photoelectron Spectroscopy of Small Organic Radicals in Cold Supersonic Expansions, Helv. Chim. Acta 2003, 86, 1152. 

The molecular beam is formed by the supersonic expansion of gas through a pulsed nozzle. It is then collimated by two skimmers, and enters... 

A technique which is not a laser method but which is most useful when combined with laser spectroscopy (LA/LIF) is that of supersonic molecular beams (27). If a molecule can be coaxed into the gas phase, it can be expanded through a supersonic nozzle at fairly high flux into a supersonic beam. The apparatus for this is fairly simple, in molecular beam terms. The result of the supersonic expansion is to cool the molecules rotationally to a few degrees Kelvin and vibrationally to a few tens of degrees, eliminating almost all thermal population of vibrational and rotational states and enormously simplifying the LA/LIF spectra that are observed. It is then possible, even for complex molecules, to make reliable vibronic assignments and infer structural parameters of the unperturbed molecule therefrom. Molecules as complex as metal phthalocyanines have been examined by this technique. 

N. Seurre, K. Le Barbu Debus, F. Lahmani, A. Zehnacker Rentien, N. Borho, and M. A. Suhm, Chiral recognition between lactic acid derivatives and an aromatic alcohol in a supersonic expansion Electronic and vibrational spectroscopy. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 8, 1007 1016 (2006). 

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