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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 85 » Issue 11
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 2284–2287 (2000)

Determination of the Bond Length and Binding Energy of the Helium Dimer by Diffraction from a Transmission Grating

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R. E. Grisenti, W. Schöllkopf, and J. P. Toennies
Max-Planck-Institut für Strömungsforschung, Bunsenstraße 10, 37073 Göttingen, Germany

G. C. Hegerfeldt, T. Köhler, and M. Stoll
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Göttingen, Bunsenstraße 9, 37073 Göttingen, Germany

Received 5 June 2000; published in the issue dated 11 September 2000

See accompanying Physics Focus

A molecular beam consisting of small helium clusters is diffracted from a 100 nm period transmission grating. The relative dimer intensities have been measured out to the 7th order and are used to determine the reduction of the effective slit width resulting from the finite size of the dimer. From a theoretical analysis of the data which also takes into account the van der Waals interaction with the grating bars, the bond length (mean internuclear distance) and the binding energy are found to be 〈r〉 = 52±4Å and |Eb| = 1.1+0.3/-0.2 mK.

© 2000 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.2284
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.2284
PACS:
33.15.-e, 03.75.Be, 21.45.+v, 36.40.Mr
 
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