| Negative ion photoelectron spectroscopy has been applied to the study of negatively charged cluster ions. In these experiments a mass-selected beam of negative ions is crossed with a fixed-frequency laser beam, and the resulting photodetached electrons are subjected to energy analysis. Evaluation of the data can provide insight pertaining to the structures, bonding, excess charge distributions, and energetics of negative cluster ions. The systems studied were generated by injection of low energy electrons into a supersonic nozzle expansion and include NO('-)(N(,2)O)(,n), H('-)(NH(,3))(,n), NH(,2)('-)(NH(,3))(,n), (N(,2)O)(,n)('-), (CO(,2))(,n)('-), and (H(,2)O)(,n)('-). In addition, a portion of this thesis deals with design, construction, operation, and performance of our newly constructed negative ion photoelectron spectrometer. |
