Imaging bond breaking and vibrational energy transfer in small water containing clusters

This letter presents a brief overview of our recent experimental studies of state-to-state vibrational predissociation (VP) dynamics of small hydrogen bonded (H-bonded) clusters following vibrational excitation. Velocity map imaging (VMI) and resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) are used to determine accurate bond dissociation energies (D0) of (H2O)2, (H2O)3, HCl–H2O and NH3–H2O. Pair-correlated product energy distributions from the VP of these complexes are also presented and compared to theoretical models. Further insights into mechanisms are obtained from the recent quasi-classical trajectory (QCT) calculations of Bowman and coworkers. The D0 values for (H2O)2 and (H2O)3 are in very good agreement with recent calculated values, and the results are used to estimate the contributions of cooperative interactions to the H-bonding network.