REACTION BETWEEN BA AND N2O IN LARGE ARN CLUSTERS

The collision between a Ba atom and an Ar(n) cluster carrying N2O mole cules has been investigated under crossed molecular beam conditions. T he argon cluster acts as a solvent for the Ba+N2O reaction, which is m onitored through its chemiluminescent channel forming electronically e xcited BaO. The effects of cluster size and the number of N2O molecule s per cluster have been investigated systematically as have the effect s of extra molecules present upon the cluster (CH4). It has been shown that (i) the BaO reaction product either stays solvated in the cluste r or is lost from the cluster; (ii) the reaction probability between B a and N2O is approximately unity for the clusters considered here; (ii i) the chemiluminescence quantum yield decreases as the number of N2O molecules per cluster is increased. The effect of a thermal bath (the argon cluster) on the dynamics of the well studied gas phase reaction Ba+N2O is discussed.