THE MISSING LINK: ROTATIONAL SPECTRUM AND GEOMETRICAL STRUCTURE OF DISILICON CARBIDE, Si2C

McCarthy, Michael C.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/79418 Copy

Description

Title

THE MISSING LINK: ROTATIONAL SPECTRUM AND GEOMETRICAL STRUCTURE OF DISILICON CARBIDE, Si2C

Author(s)

McCarthy, Michael C.

Contributor(s)

• Gottlieb, Carl A
• Reilly, Neil J
• Thorwirth, Sven
• Martin-Drumel, Marie-Aline
• Stanton, John F.
• Changala, Bryan
• Baraban, Joshua H.

Issue Date

25-Jun-15

Keyword(s)

Astronomy

Abstract

Disilicon carbide Si$_2$C is one of the most fascinating small molecules for both fundamental and applied reasons. Like C$_3$, it has a shallow bending angle, and may therefore also serve as a classic example of a quasilinear species. Si$_2$C is also thought to be quite stable. Mass spectrometric studies conclude that it is one of the most common gas-phase fragments in the evaporation of silicon carbide at high temperature. For these same reasons, it may be abundant in certain evolved carbon stars such as IRC+12016. Its electronic spectrum was recently studied by several of us, but its ground state geometry and rotational spectrum remain unknown until now. Using sensitive microwave techniques and high-level coupled cluster calculations, Si$_2$C has been detected in the radio band, and is found to be highly abundant. Its more common rare isotopic species have also be observed either in natural abundance or using isotopically-enriched samples, from which a highly precise semi-experimental structure has been derived. This talk will summarize recent work, and discuss the prospects for astronomical detection. Now that all four of the Si$_m$C$_n$ clusters with $m+n=3$ has been detected experimentally, a rigorous comparison of their structure and chemical bonding can be made.

Publisher

International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy

Type of Resource

text

Language

English

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/79418

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