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Abstract
The hydrogen ions and molecules, Ar-H+-Ar, H3+/D3+Ar2,3 and H6+ are generated in a pulsed discharge supersonic expansion. The cations are size selected into a reflectron time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer and probed via photodisscoaition spectroscopy in the region of 600 4550 (far/mid IR). We perform high level anharmonic calculations utilizing second order vibrational perturbation theory (VPT2) to complement our measurements on these highly anharmonic systems. The proton bound dimer of argon shows strong anharmonicity with the fundamental and combinations of the proton stretch with 1 to 5 quanta in the symmetric Ar stretch in the region from 900 to 2200 cm-1. The H3+Ar2,3 and D3+Ar2,3 ions exhibit complex structure in the mid and far-IR spectra resulting from combination and overtone bands involving the asymmetric stretches of the core H3+ ion. H6+ is found to dissociate by loss of 1-3 hydrogen atom units forming the fragment ions H5+, H4+, and H3+. This is explained by a low energy barrier for the conversion between nearby D2d and Cs doublet state geometries that appear to rapidly interconvert with absorption of an IR photon. These experiments provide complex spectra that cannot be described by harmonic vibrational predictions and require high level anharmonic calculations.