Doubly Charged Dimers and Trimers of Heavy Noble Gases

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Authors

Gabriel Schöpfer, University of Innsbruck
Stefan Bergmeister, University of Innsbruck
Milan Ončák, University of Innsbruck
Ianessa Stromberg, University of Innsbruck
Masoomeh Mahmoodi-Darian, University of Innsbruck
Paul Scheier, University of Innsbruck
Olof Echt, University of New Hampshire, DurhamFollow
Elisabeth Gruber, University of Innsbruck

Abstract

Many doubly charged heteronuclear dimers are metastable or even thermodynamically stable with respect to charge separation. Homonuclear dicationic dimers, however, are more difficult to form. He₂²⁺ was the first noble gas dimer predicted to be metastable and, decades later, observed. Ne₂²⁺ is the only other dicationic noble gas dimer that has been detected so far. Here, we present a novel approach to form fragile dicationic species, by post-ionization of singly charged ions that are embedded in helium nanodroplets (HNDs). Bare ions are then extracted by colliding the HNDs with helium gas. We detect homonuclear doubly charged dimers and trimers of krypton and xenon, but not argon. Our multi-reference ab initio calculations confirm the stability of Kr₂²⁺, Kr₃²⁺, Xe₂²⁺, Xe₃²⁺, and Ar₂²⁺, but put the stability of Ar₃²⁺ towards dissociation to Ar⁺ + Ar₂⁺ into question.

Department

Physics

Publication Date

3-21-2024

Journal Title

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.

Language

English

Publisher

Royal Society of Chemistry

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1039/D4CP00465E

Document Type

Article

Recommended Citation

G. Schöpfer, S. Bergmeister, M. Ončák, I. Stromberg, M. Mahmoodi-Darian, P. Scheier, O. Echt, E. Gruber, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 26 (2024) 11482-11490

Comments

This article is part of the PCCP 25th Anniversary Issue