Argon solvent effects on optical properties of silver metal clusters

Argon gas at a high pressure (～80 bar) has been expanded using a miniaturized pulsed valve at room temperature, producing a supersonic beam of cold, large argon droplets. Atoms of silver are subsequently embedded into the droplet using the pick-up technique. The resulting Ag(n)Ar(droplet) distribution was analyzed using multiphoton laser ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Besides bare metal clusters, snowballs of silver monomers and dimers encapsulated in up to 50 argon atoms have been observed. The influence of the solvent on the optical absorption of the solute was studied for embedded Ag(8) using resonant two-photon ionization in the ultraviolet. A redshift and broadening of the Ag(8)Ar(droplet) optical spectrum compared to that measured in pure [Federmann et al., Eur. Phys. J. D 1999, 9, 11] and Ar-doped helium droplets [Diederich et al., J. Chem. Phys.2002, 116, 3263] was observed, which is attributed to the interaction with the larger Ar matrix environment.