Formation of Core–Shell Silver–Ethane Clusters in He Droplets

Abstract

Here, we have studied the utility of large He droplets of 10(5)-10(7) atoms for the growth of composite clusters consisting of an Ag core and a shell of ethane molecules. The clusters have been assembled by doping He droplets with up to 10(3) Ag atoms and ethane molecules in two sequential pickup cells and studied via infrared spectroscopy in the C-H stretch region of the ethane molecules. We found that the ν7 band of ethane molecules at the interface with the Ag atoms has a low frequency shift of approximately 15 cm(-1) with respect to that of more distant ethane molecules away from the interface. The intensity ratio of the two bands was used for evaluation of the Ag core and ethane shell cluster structure. We found that the number of surface ethane molecules is in good agreement with a model that assumes a dense, core-shell structure for clusters containing less than about 100 atoms. However, large Ag clusters consisting of about 3000 atoms have a factor of about 5 larger surface area than that predicted by the model, indicating a ramified structure for such larger Ag clusters obtained in liquid He. Moreover, we demonstrate that He droplets behave as calorimeters for measurements of the number of captured atoms and molecules as well as the amount of absorbed laser energy.