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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 92 » Issue 8
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 083003 (2004) [4 pages]

Long-Range Electron Binding to Quadrupolar Molecules

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C. Desfrançois, Y. Bouteiller, and J. P. Schermann
Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, CNRS, University Paris Nord, Villetaneuse, 93430, France

D. Radisic, S. T. Stokes, and K. H. Bowen
Chemistry Department, John Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA

N. I. Hammer and R. N. Compton
Departments of Physics and Chemistry, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA

Received 28 October 2003; published 27 February 2004

An excess electron can be bound to a molecule in a very diffuse orbital as a result of the long-range contributions of the molecular electrostatic field. Following a systematic search, we report experimental evidence that quadrupole binding occurs for the trans-succinonitrile molecule (EA=20±2  meV), while the gauche-succinonitrile conformer supports a dipole-bound anion state (EA=108±10  meV). Theoretical calculations at the DFT/B3LYP level support these interpretations and give electron affinities of 20 and 138 meV, respectively.

© 2004 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.083003
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.083003
PACS:
33.15.Ry, 33.60.–q, 34.60.+z
 
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