MOLECULAR BEAM DEFLECTION OF HIGH TEMPERATURE MOLECULES

Abstract

Author Institution: Department of Chemistry Princeton University, Princeton; Department of chemistry, Harvard UniversityMolecular beams of $TiO_{2}$, $ZrO_{2}$, $TaO_{2}$, $CeO_{2}$, $ThO_{2}$, $UO_{2}$, and $SiO_{2}$ have been generated from Ta, W or Ir ovens at $2000-2600^{\circ} K$. The molecules pass through an electric quadrupole field and are then detected using a Weiss-type electron-bombardment ionizer with mass spectrometric selection of the $MO_{2}^{+}$ ions. In the electric quadrupole field, only molecules with permanent electric dipole moments are deflected toward the beam axis (refocusing). All the above dioxides except $SiO_{2}$ show appreciable refocusing behavior, indicating that they are probably bent in their ground electronic states. Beams of chemically unstable free radicals are produced by sampling reacting systems at steady state. Some preliminary studies have been performed on alkali-alkyl halide reactions