Photodissociation of oriented HXeI molecules in the gas phase

We report the first production of the molecule HXeI, which is bound by ionic forces, in the gas phase. The molecule is generated by the photodissociation of HI molecules on a large Xe-n cluster and is identified by detecting the asymmetric distribution of the H atom fragments of the oriented HXeI. The orientation is achieved in a combined pulsed laser and weak electrostatic field making use of the large anisotropy in the polarizability and the large dipole moment of this molecule. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.