Overtone vibrational spectroscopy in H2-H2O complexes: A combined high level theoretical ab initio, dynamical and experimental study.

First results are reported on overtone (vOH = 2 ← 0) spectroscopy of weakly bound H2-H2O complexes in a slit supersonic jet, based on a novel combination of (i) vibrationally mediated predissociation of H2-H2O, followed by (ii) UV photodissociation of the resulting H2O, and (iii) UV laser induced fluorescence on the nascent OH radical. In addition, intermolecular dynamical calculations are performed in full 5D on the recent ab initio intermolecular potential of Valiron et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 129, 134306 (2008)] in order to further elucidate the identity of the infrared transitions detected. Excellent agreement is achieved between experimental and theoretical spectral predictions for the most strongly bound van der Waals complex consisting of ortho (I = 1) H2 and ortho (I = 1) H2O (oH2-oH2O). Specifically, two distinct bands are seen in the oH2-oH2O spectrum, corresponding to internal rotor states in the upper vibrational manifold of Σ and Π rotational character. However, none of the three other possible nuclear spin modifications (pH2-oH2O, pH2-pH2O, or oH2-pH2O) are observed above current signal to noise level, which for the pH2 complexes is argued to arise from displacement by oH2 in the expansion mixture to preferentially form the more strongly bound species. Direct measurement of oH2-oH2O vibrational predissociation in the time domain reveals lifetimes of 15(2) ns and <5(2) ns for the Σ and Π states, respectively. Theoretical calculations permit the results to be interpreted in terms of near resonant energy levels and intermolecular alignment of the H2 and H2O wavefunctions, providing insight into predissociation dynamical pathways from these metastable levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]