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

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 and X. Ma ()
Additional contact information
XiaoLong Zhu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
XiaoQing Hu: Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics
ShunCheng Yan: Chinese Academy of Sciences
YiGeng Peng: Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics
WenTian Feng: Chinese Academy of Sciences
DaLong Guo: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yong Gao: Chinese Academy of Sciences
ShaoFeng Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Amine Cassimi: CEA/CNRS/ENSICAEN/UNICAEN
JiaWei Xu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
DongMei Zhao: Chinese Academy of Sciences
DaPu Dong: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Bang Hai: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yong Wu: Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics
JianGuo Wang: Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics
X. Ma: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract Van 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.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16749-w

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