We report on a combined experimental and theoretical study of Li+ ions solvated by up to 50 He atoms. The experiments show clear enhanced abundances associated with HenLi+ clusters where n=2, 6, 8, and 14. We find that classical methods, e.g.\ Basin-Hopping (BH), give results that qualitatively agree with quantum mechanical methods such as path integral Monte Carlo, diffusion Monte Carlo and quantum free energy, regarding both energies and the solvation structures that are formed. The theory identifies particularly stable structures for n=4, 6 and 8 which line up with some of the most abundant features in the experiments.
@article{arxiv.1912.01350,
title = {Lithium ions solvated in helium},
author = {Monisha Rastogi and Christian Leidlmair and Lukas An der Lan and Josu Ortiz de Zárate and Ricardo Pérez de Tudela and Massimiliano Bartolomei and Marta I. Hernández and José Campos-Martínez and Tomás González-Lezana and Javier Hernández-Rojas and José Bretón and Paul Scheier and Michael Gatchell},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1912.01350},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
8 pages, 7 figures, published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics