15min:

CHRISTOPHER C. CARTER, TERRY A. MILLER, HEE-SEUNG LEE AND ANNE B. MCCOY, Department of Chemistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210.

Over the past several years we have performed high resolution spectroscopic experiments on the M XH(A^{2 +}) (M=Ne, Ar, Kr; X = O,S) family of complexes. Based on these studies, we have fit a set of empirical potential surfaces that reproduce the experimental band origins to within 1 \cm and the rotational constants to within 1%. In this talk, we will discuss these potentials and the experimental spectroscopic trends in this class of systems. In the case of Ne SH, the most weakly bound of these species with a D₀ of 41 \cm, only one quantum of excitation in either of the van der Waals modes is necessary to allow the complex to sample both the Ne-SH and the Ne-HS minima on the potential. In contrast, in the most strongly bonded case of the Kr OH complex, D₀ is 1772 \cm, and all of the assigned states are found to be localized in the Kr-HO minimum of the potential. Manifestations of this range of bonding, from van der Waals to near covalent in strength, in the spectroscopic constants will also be discussed.