No abstract

Helium droplets provide the possibility to study phenomena at the very low temperatures at which quantum mechanical effects are more pronounced and fewer quantum states have significant occupation probabilities. Understanding the migration of either positive or negative charges in liquid helium is essential to comprehend charge-induced processes in molecular systems embedded in helium droplets. Here, we report the resonant formation of excited metastable atomic and molecular helium anions in superfluid helium droplets upon electron impact. Although the molecular anion is heliophobic and migrates toward the surface of the helium droplet, the excited metastable atomic helium anion is bound within the helium droplet and exhibits high mobility. The atomic anion is shown to be responsible for the formation of molecular dopant anions upon charge transfer and thus, we clarify the nature of the previously unidentified fast exotic negative charge carrier found in bulk liquid helium.

Helium has a unique phase diagram and below 25 bar it does not form a solid even at the lowest temperatures. Electrostriction leads to the formation of a solid layer of helium around charged impurities at much lower pressures in liquid and superfluid helium. These so-called ‘Atkins snowballs' have been investigated for several simple ions. Here we form HenC60+ complexes with n exceeding 100 via electron ionization of helium nanodroplets doped with C60. Photofragmentation of these complexes is measured by merging a tunable narrow-bandwidth laser beam with the ions. A switch from red- to blueshift of the absorption frequency of HenC60+ on addition of He atoms at n=32 is associated with a phase transition in the attached helium layer from solid to partly liquid (melting of the Atkins snowball). Elaborate molecular dynamics simulations using a realistic force field and including quantum effects support this interpretation.

Properties of ground state He(=He(1s 2 1 S)), He + (=He(1s 2 S)), He + 2 (=He 2 (1σ 2 g 1σ u 2 + u )) and excited (metastable) He * (=He(1s2s 3 S)), He 2 * (=He 2 (1σ 2 g 1σ u 2σ g 3 + u )), He * − (=He(1s2s2p 4 P)) and He 2 * − (=He 2 (1σ 2 g 1σ u 2σ g 1π u 4 g )) are calculated using the coupled-cluster method and basis sets multiply augmented with diffuse functions. The aim of this work is to capture the essential physics needed to describe the qualitatively different behaviour of the above mentioned helium species dissolved in liquid helium. By studying their interaction with atomic ground state helium it is found that ground state He, He + , He 2 + and excited (metastable) He * − are well bound within a helium droplet. In comparison excited (metastable) He * , He 2 * and He 2 * − are found to be squeezed out due to the high energetic cost associated with the large volume they require inside a helium droplet. In particular, the molecular species He 2 * and He 2 * − consist of a positive core in the form of a He 2 + which is surrounded by a diffuse electronic cloud accounting for one or two electrons, respectively. The implications of these results for recent experimental studies on helium nanodroplets are discussed, particularly for the negatively charged species He * − and He 2 * − . We find that the latter species experience completely different dynamcis in a helium droplet although they are very similar in various other respects (e.g. diffuse electron clouds, size) in good agreement with experimental observations.

A consistent and accurate ab initio parametrization of density functional dispersion correction (DFT-D) for the 94 elements H-Pu The Journal of Chemical Physics 132, 154104 (2010) Helium droplets are doped with fullerenes (either C 60 or C 70 ) and hydrogen (H 2 or D 2 ) and investigated by high-resolution mass spectrometry. In addition to pure helium and hydrogen cluster ions, hydrogen-fullerene complexes are observed upon electron ionization. The composition of the main ion series is (H 2 ) n HC m + where m = 60 or 70. Another series of even-numbered ions, (H 2 ) n C m + , is slightly weaker in stark contrast to pure hydrogen cluster ions for which the even-numbered series (H 2 ) n + is barely detectable. The ion series (H 2 ) n HC m + and (H 2 ) n C m + exhibit abrupt drops in ion abundance at n = 32 for C 60 and 37 for C 70 , indicating formation of an energetically favorable commensurate phase, with each face of the fullerene ion being covered by one adsorbate molecule. However, the first solvation layer is not complete until a total of 49 H 2 are adsorbed on C 60 + ; the corresponding value for C 70 + is 51. Surprisingly, these values do not exhibit a hydrogen-deuterium isotope effect even though the isotope effect for H 2 /D 2 adsorbates on graphite exceeds 6%. We also observe doubly charged fullerene-deuterium clusters; they, too, exhibit abrupt drops in ion abundance at n = 32 and 37 for C 60 and C 70 , respectively. The findings imply that the charge is localized on the fullerene, stabilizing the system against charge separation. Density functional calculations for C 60 -hydrogen complexes with up to five hydrogen atoms provide insight into the experimental findings and the structure of the ions. The binding energy of physisorbed H 2 is 57 meV for H 2 C 60 + and (H 2 ) 2 C 60 + , and slightly above 70 meV for H 2 HC 60 + and (H 2 ) 2 HC 60 + . The lone hydrogen in the odd-numbered complexes is covalently bound atop a carbon atom but a large barrier of 1.69 eV impedes chemisorption of the H 2 molecules. Calculations for neutral and doubly charged complexes are presented as well.