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Updated: Aug 24, 2026

Spatial Separation of Molecular Conformers and Clusters
Published on: January 9, 2014
Excited-state relaxation of Ag8 clusters embedded in helium droplets
Paul Radcliffe1, Andreas Przystawik, Thomas Diederich
1Fachbereich Physik, Universität Rostock, 18051 Rostock, Germany.
Abstract:
Neutral silver clusters Ag(N) are grown in ultracold helium nanodroplets. By exploiting a strong absorption resonance recently found for Ag8, first photoelectron spectra of this neutral species are recorded. Variation of the laser photon energy reveals that direct vertical two-photon ionization is hindered by rapid relaxation into the lower edge of a long-living excited state manifold. The analysis of the dynamics gives a precise value of (6.89+/-0.09) eV for the vertical ionization potential of Ag8. The influence of the helium matrix on photoemission is discussed.
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