Knowledge Bank

The cavity ringdown technique has been implemented for the electronic spectroscopy in the ultraviolet of the jet-cooled transition metal silicides, CuSi, AgSi. AuSi. and PtSi. produced in a pulsed laser vaporization plasma $reactor1$. Several rovibronic bands for each species have been measured and analyzed to yield molecular properties for the $\mathrm{<mrow\; data-mjx-texclass="ORD">2</mrow>}\Sigma$ ground and excited electronic states. A time-of-flight mass spectrometer is used to simultancously monitor species produced in the supersonic expansion and has provided the first direct evidence of polyatomic transition metal silicides, including clusters containing more than one metal atom. Comparisons of the data for these four transition metal silicide species suggest regular chemical bonding trends, apparently dominated by covalent interactions.