abstract
Accurate nuclear quadrupole moment values are essential as benchmarks for nuclear structure models and for the interpretation of experimentally determined nuclear quadrupole interactions in terms of electronic and molecular structure. Here, we present a novel route to such data by combining perturbed gamma-gamma angular correlation measurements on free small linear molecules, realized for the first time within this work, with state-of-the-art ab initio electronic structure calculations of the electric field gradient at the probe site. This approach, also feasible for a series of other cases, is applied to Hg and Cd halides, resulting in Q(Hg-199, 5/2(-)) = +0.674(17) b and Q(Cd-111, 5/2(+)) = +0.664(7) b.
subject category
Physics, Multidisciplinary
authors
Haas, H; Roder, J; Correia, JG; Schell, J; Fenta, AS; Vianden, R; Larsen, EMH; Aggelund, PA; Fromsejer, R; Hemmingsen, LBS; Sauer, SPA; Lupascu, DC; Amaral, VS
our authors
Abel Eduardo Silva Fenta
Collaborator
Heinz Haas
Collaborator
Vitor Brás Sequeira Amaral
Full professoracknowledgements
The assistance of the CERN technical staff, Bernard Crepieux and Miranda von Stenis in particular, was essential for the success of our experiments. H. H. would like to thank S. Kranawetter and family for their hospitality during his work at CERN. Correspondence with M. Hargittai (Budapest) was helpful in choosing the appropriate molecular geometries. This work was funded by German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through Contract No. 05K16PGA, the Belgian KU Leuven contract (SF/18/008), the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (Project No. CERN/FIS-PAR/0005/2017, and CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials, UIDB/50011/2020 & UIDP/50011/2020). The EU Horizon 2020 Framework supported ISOLDE beam times through Grant No. 654002 (ENSAR2).