Complete characterization of the (D2O)2 ground state: high Ka rotation-tunneling levels

Spectra of the D2O dimer in the O-D fundamental stretch region: The acceptor symmetric stretch fundamental and new combination bands

The O-D stretch fundamental region of the deuterated water dimer, (D2O)2, is further studied using a pulsed supersonic slit jet and a tunable optical parametric oscillator infrared source. The previously unobserved acceptor symmetric O-D stretch fundamental vibration is detected, with Ka = 0 ← 0 and 1 ← 0 sub-bands at about 2669 and 2674 cm-1, respectively. The analysis indicates that the various water dimer tunneling splittings generally decrease in the excited vibrational state, similar to the three other previously observed O-D stretch fundamentals. Two new (D2O)2 combination bands are observed, giving information on intermolecular vibrations in the excited O-D stretch states. The likely vibrational assignments for these and a previously observed combination band are discussed.

Spectra of the D2O dimer in the O-D fundamental stretch region: Vibrational dependence of tunneling splittings and lifetimes

The fundamental O-D stretch region (2600-2800 cm^-1) of the fully deuterated water dimer (D₂O)₂ is studied using a pulsed supersonic slit jet source and a tunable optical parametric oscillator source. Relatively high spectral resolution (0.002 cm^-1) enables all six dimer tunneling components to be observed, in most cases, for the acceptor asymmetric O-D stretch, the donor free O-D stretch, and the donor bound O-D stretch vibrations. The dominant acceptor switching tunneling splittings are observed to decrease moderately in the excited O-D stretch states, to roughly 75% of their ground state values, whereas the smaller donor-acceptor interchange splittings show more dramatic and irregular decreases. Excited state predissociation lifetimes, as determined from the observed line broadening, show large variations (0.2 ≤ τ ≤ 5 ns) depending on the vibrational state, K-value, and tunneling symmetry. Another very weak band is tentatively assigned to a combination mode involving an intramolecular O-D stretch plus an intermolecular twist overtone. Asymmetric O-D stretch bands of the mixed isotopologue dimers D₂O-DOH and D₂O-HOD are also observed and analyzed.

Ab Initio Potential Energy and Dipole Moment Surfaces of (H2O)2

A full-dimensional ab initio potential energy surface (PES) and dipole moment surface (DMS) are reported for the water dimer, (H2O)2. The CCSD(T)-PES is a very precise fit to 19,805 ab initio energies obtained with the coupled-cluster (CCSD(T)) method, using an aug-cc-pVTZ basis. The standard counterpoise correction was applied to approximately eliminate basis set superposition errors. The fit is based on an approach that incorporates the permutational symmetry of identical atoms [Huang, X.; Braams, B.; Bowman, J. M. J. Chem.Phys. 2005, 122, 044308]. The DMS is a fit to the dipole moment obtained with Møller-Plesset (MP2) theory, using an aug-cc-pVTZ basis. The PES has an RMS fitting error of 31 cm(-1) for energies below 20,000 cm(-1), relative to the global minimum. This surface can describe various internal floppy motions, including various monomer inversions, and isomerization pathways. Ten characteristic stationary points have been located on the surface, four of which are transition structures and the rest are higher order saddle points. Their geometrical and vibrational properties are presented and compared with available previous theoretical work. The CCSD(T)-PES and MP2-DMS dissociate correctly (and symmetrically) to two H2O monomers, with D(e) = 1665.7 cm(-1) (19.93 kJ/mol). Accurate quantum calculations of the zero-point energy of the dimer (using diffusion Monte Carlo) and the monomers (using a vibrational configuration interaction approach) are reported, and these together with D(e) give a value of D0 of 1042 cm(-1) (12.44 kJ/mol). A best estimated value is 1130 cm(-1) (13.5 kJ/mol).

Water Pentamer: Characterization of the Torsional-Puckering Manifold by Terahertz VRT Spectroscopy

We present the measurement and analysis of five new (D2O)5 bands via vibration-rotation-tunneling (VRT) spectroscopy as well as a preliminary description of a second (H2O)5 band. The vibrationally averaged rotational constants of all five fitted bands agree well with those from the two previously observed (D2O)5 bands and confirm that the pentamer averages to a symmetric, quasi-planar structure on the time scale of our experiment. While the spectrum of the first two bands, located at 50.7 cm(-1) (1.52 THz) and 27.3 cm(-1) (0.82 THz) are indicative of unperturbed oblate rotors, the three remaining (D2O)5 bands centered at 47.7 cm(-1) (1.43 THz), 45.4 cm(-1) (1.36 THz), and 45.0 cm(-1) (1.35 THz) are severely perturbed by first-order Coriolis coupling. This represents the first observation of this perturbation in the perdeuterated water pentamer, as well as the first observation of transitions between degenerate states of the torsional-puckering manifold. Unlike transitions from the (H2O)5 band observed by Brown et al. at 89.0 cm(-1) and the 103.8 cm(-1) band that we report here, none of the individual rovibrational transitions of any of the five (D2O)5 bands demonstrate spectral splittings due to bifurcation tunneling. We conclude, through careful analysis of these water pentamer bands, that at least three torsional-puckering manifolds have been probed and that the lowest-energy manifold is highly compacted. A plausible water pentamer torsional-puckering correlation diagram is proposed, though additional experimental data are required to unambiguously establish the energies of the torsional-puckering levels.