INFRARED SPECTROSCOPIC EVIDENCE FOR ROTATION OF SMALL MOLECULES IN SOLID NITROGEN MATRICES.

Author Institution: Department of Chemistry, Queen's University; Department of Chemistry, University of British ColumbiaInfrared spectra have been recorded for several small molecules in solid nitrogen at liquid helium temperatures. Multiplets have been observed in the regions of the vibrational fundamentals of HCl, HBr and $D_{2}O$. After assignments to dimers and other low polymers have been made, there remain several sharp peaks in the regions of the fundamentals of each molecule. An interpretation is proposed that involves rotation of the isolated monomers and interacting pairs of monomer molecules in non-nearest neighbour site