Heavy N+ ion transfer in doubly charged N2Ar van der Waals cluster

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16749-w
• Publication Date: 2020-06-12T10:03:06Z
• Authors: XiaoLong Zhu; XiaoQing Hu; ShunCheng Yan; YiGeng Peng; WenTian Feng; DaLong Guo; Yong Gao; ShaoFeng Zhang; Amine Cassimi; JiaWei Xu; DongMei Zhao; DaPu Dong; Bang Hai; Yong Wu; JianGuo Wang; X. Ma
• Keywords: [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-ATOM-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Atomic Physics [physics.atom-ph]; Science; Q; 0103 physical sciences; 540; 530; 01 natural sciences; Article

AbstractVan der Waals clusters are weakly bound atomic/molecular systems and are an important medium for understanding micro-environmental chemical phenomena in bio-systems. The presence of neighboring atoms may open channels otherwise forbidden in isolated atoms/molecules. In hydrogen-bond clusters, proton transfer plays a crucial role, which involves mass and charge migration over large distances within the cluster and results in its fragmentation. Here we report an exotic transfer channel involving a heavy N+ ion observed in a doubly charged cluster produced by 1 MeV Ne8+ ions: (N2Ar)2+→N++NAr+. The neighboring Ar atom decreases the $${\mathrm{N}}_2^{2 + }$$

N

2

2 +

barrier height and width, resulting in significant shorter lifetimes of the metastable molecular ion state $${\mathrm{N}}_2^{2 + }$$

N

2

2 +

($${{\mathrm{X}}^{1}}{\Sigma _{{\mathrm{g}}}^{+}}$$

X

1

Σ

g

+

). Consequently, the breakup of the covalent N+−N+ bond, the tunneling out of the N+ ion from the $${\mathrm{N}}_2^{2 + }$$

N

2

2 +

potential well, as well as the formation of an N−Ar+ bound system take place almost simultaneously, resulting in a Coulomb explosion of N+ and NAr+ ion pairs.