Spectroscopic characterization of N(2)O aggregates: from clusters to the particulate state

Collisional cooling is used to generate N(2)O particles with radii ranging from the subnanometer to the submicrometer region. The vibrational dynamics of the aggregates is studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. In the region of the stretching fundamentals and combination bands, the infrared spectra of the particles exhibit characteristic size-dependent features. For the very small particles, the results obtained from collisional cooling are compared for the first time with corresponding results from supersonic jet expansions. It turns out that with both methods very similar clusters are generated. A pronounced temperature dependence of a combination band maximum in the collisional cooling cell spectra is found. This correlation is exploited to estimate cluster temperatures in supersonic jet spectra.