Rotational Spectroscopic Investigation of the Microsolvation of OCS with Helium Atoms.
Yunjie Xu and Wolfgang Jäger
Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton AB T6G 2G2, Canada
The microsolvation of an OCS molecule with helium atoms is being investigated using a pulsed molecular beam Fourier transform microwave spectrometer. To date, we have unambiguously assigned the rotational spectra of HeN–OCS clusters with N = 2–8, and the work on clusters with larger N is being pursued. The aim of the study is to evaluate the variation of the rotational constants of the clusters as N increases and to relate the observed trend to the limiting case of the helium droplet environment (N = several thousand). Comparison of the experimental findings with the results of recent theoretical studies of HeN–OCS clusters with N up to 100 will be presented. In addition, the rich isotopic data from the microwave study made it possible to determine the positions of the helium atoms within each of the individual clusters.