15min:
HIGH-RESOLUTION INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY OF Ge2C3.

S. THORWIRTH, V. LUTTER, S. SCHLEMMER, I. Physikalisches Institut, Universität zu Köln, 50937 Köln, Germany; T. F. GIESEN, Universität Kassel, Fachbereich 10 - Physik, 34132 Kassel, Germany; J. GAUSS, Institut für Physikalische Chemie, Universität Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany.

Carbon-rich systems are of great importance in diverse areas of research like material science as well as astro- and structural chemistry. Despite this relevance, our knowledge of smaller cluster units is still fragmentary, particularly with respect to investigations at high-spectral resolution in the gas phase. Unequivocal assignment of spectral features to their molecular carriers is critically dependent on predictions from high-level quantum-chemical calculations. In turn, high-resolution studies provide useful information to assess the predictive power of quantum-chemical methods. This is particularly interesting for cluster systems harboring heavy elements for which so far relatively little is known from experiment. With this contribution, we would like to present a recent gas-phase study of a polyatomic germanium-carbon cluster, linear Ge2C3 (Ge=C=C=C=Ge), which was previously studied in an Ar matrix. The cluster was produced through laser ablation of germanium-graphite sample rods and observed in a free jet at wavelengths around 5µm. Additionally, quantum-chemical calculations of Ge2C3 were performed at the CCSD(T) level of theory. The production and observation of Ge2C3 suggests that many more binary clusters should be amenable to high-resolution spectroscopic techniques not only in the infrared but also in the microwave region.