Threshold photodetachment spectroscopy has been performed on the molecular anion CN⁻ at both 16(1) K and 295(2) K in a 22-pole ion trap and at 295(2) K from a pulsed ion beam. The spectra show a typical energy dependence of the detachment cross section yielding a determination of the electron affinity of CN to greater precision than has previously been known at 31 163(16) cm⁻¹ [3.864(2) eV]. Allowed s-wave detachment is observed for CN⁻, but the dependence of the photodetachment cross section near the threshold is perturbed by the long-range interaction between the permanent dipole moment of CN and the outgoing electron. Furthermore, we observe a temperature dependence of the cross section near the threshold, which we attribute to a reduction of the effective permanent dipole due to higher rotational excitation at higher temperatures.

In the present study, we report the results of a detailed theoretical investigation along with the experimental observations of chlorine-doped small lithium clusters. The cluster ions of the type Li_nCl_m ⁺ (n ≥ m, n = 1–6, m = 1–3) were obtained by the evaporation of LiCl from a Knudsen cell as a chemical reactor in the temperature range between 1800 and 2700 K. Heterogeneous clusters with more than one Cl atom are produced and detected for the first time, and the experimental conditions for formation and stability are examined. The structural characteristics and stabilities of neutral and positively charged Li_nCl_m species are analyzed by using quantum chemistry methods. Doping lithium clusters with chlorine increases their stability, although there is a typical closed-shell–open-shell alternation in stability. Calculated dissociation energies are the best indicator of cluster stability of experimentally detected clusters. Heterogeneous lithium-chloride clusters can be viewed as species consisting of m negative Cl⁻ ions and a positively charged Li_n ^(1+,2+) “cage”; upon ionization, an electron departs from the lithium cage. An important reason for the higher stability of closed-shell clusters is the delocalization of electrons over the lithium cage, which is more energetically favored than localization of electrons between two lithium atoms. According to their ionization energies, the titled clusters can be classified as “superalkalis”.

In the present study, we prove the plausibility of a simple model for the Renner–Teller effect in tetra-atomic molecules with linear equilibrium geometry by ab initio calculations of the electronic energy surfaces and non-adiabatic matrix elements for the X²Π_u state of C₂H₂⁺. This phenomenon is considered as a combination of the usual Renner–Teller effect, appearing in triatomic species, and a kind of the Jahn–Teller effect, similar to the original one arising in highly symmetric molecules. Only four parameters (plus the spin–orbit constant, if the spin effects are taken into account), which can be extracted from ab initio calculations carried out at five appropriate (planar) molecular geometries, are sufficient for building up the Hamiltonian matrix whose diagonalization results in the complete low-energy (bending) vibronic spectrum. The main result of the present study is the proof that the diabatization scheme, hidden beneath the apparent simplicity of the model, can safely be carried out, at small-amplitude bending vibrations, without cumbersome computation of non-adiabatic matrix elements at large number of molecular geometries.