Knowledge Bank

Infrared laser spectroscopy has been used to characterize the solvation of HCl with small number of water molecules in helium nanodroplets. Complexes of (HCl)(H$2$O) with m = 1 -- 3 and n = 1 -- 3 have been identified in the free OH stretching and bonded OH spectral range of 3000 -- 3900 cm$\mathrm{<mrow\; data-mjx-texclass="ORD">-1</mrow>}$. The assignment of the infrared vibrational bands of the clusters is aided by pick-up pressure dependence experiments and ab initio calculations.