Production of clusters by laser vaporization and their trapping in rare gas matrices

Pulsed laser vaporization is combined with matrix isolation to provide a new versatile technique for studies of metal atoms, clusters, and other reactive intermediates. The potentials of the new technique are discussed and it is shown that concentrations of metal dimers and higher clusters can be considerably enhanced compared with conventional matrix experiments. The technique is applied successfully to several metals with widely differing properties, and some new spectroscopic results are also reported. Spectra of several molecules, including Ca₂, Pb₂, and PbO, are generated and, in particular, the molybdenum dimer spectroscopy and photophysics in a matrix are discussed.