Abstract
Neutral hydrogen clusters are grown in ultracold helium nanodroplets by successive pickup of hydrogen molecules. Even-numbered hydrogen cluster cations are observed upon electron-impact ionization with and without attached helium atoms and in addition to the familiar odd-numbered H(n)(+). The helium matrix affects the fragmentation dynamics that usually lead to the formation of overwhelmingly odd-numbered H(n)(+). The use of high-resolution mass spectrometry allows the unambiguous identification of even-numbered H(n)(+) up to n congruent to 120 by their mass excess that distinguishes them from He(n)(+), mixed He(m)H(n)(+), and background ions. The large range in size of these hydrogen cluster ions is unprecedented, as is the accuracy of their definition. Apart from the previously observed magic number n = 6, pronounced drops in the abundance of even-numbered cluster ions are seen at n = 30 and 114, which suggest icosahedral shell closures at H(6)(+)(H(2))(12) and H(6)(+)(H(2))(54). Possible isomers of H(6)(+) are identified at the quadratic configuration interaction with inclusion of single and double excitations (QCISD)/aug-cc-pVTZ level of theory (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3035833]
Department
Physics
Publication Date
12-10-2008
Journal Title
Journal of Chemical Physics
Publisher
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1063/1.3035833
Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
The following article appeared in J. Chem. Phys. 129, 224306 (2008); doi: 10.1063/1.3035833 and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3035833.
Rights
© 2008 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.