Structure determination of isolated metal clusters via far-infrared spectroscopy

We present a new method for the size selective structure determination of small isolated metal clusters in the gas phase. The technique is applied to cationic vanadium clusters containing 6 to 23 atoms, whose far infrared absorption spectra are measured in the 140-450 cm(-1) spectral range. The spectra are unique for each cluster size and are true fingerprints of the cluster's structure. By comparing the experimental spectra to spectra obtained from density-functional theory, the geometric cluster structure can be identified.