Vibrational and Electronic Spectroscopy of Mass-Selected Organic Cations and Clusters

The structures and properties of organic cations and clusters are an area of intense research. We readily produce these species in a pulsed electrical discharge. Size-selected ions are probed using infrared laser photodissociation spectroscopy. Theoretical calculations of molecular geometries and frequencies are used to augment the assignment of the obtained spectra. The spectra of [C,H2,O]+ exhibits different features based on the conditions used to produce the ions. Infrared spectra for protonated acetylacetone/water complexes indicate possible tautomerization of the acetylacetone molecule upon addition of a single water molecule. Calculations of the electronic states of some small organic cations indicate that it may be possible to guide future investigations into carriers of the diffuse interstellar bands using theoretical predictions.