Cavity ringdown laser absorption spectroscopy and time-of-flight mass spectroscopy of jet cooled platinum silicides.

The cavity ringdown technique (CRLAS) has been employed to measure the gas phase absorption spectrum of the platinum silicide molecule in the 350 nm region. All nine of the measured rovibronic bands are assigned to a single 1 sigma-1 sigma electronic transition, with a ground state vibrational frequency of omega "e = 549.0(3) cm-1, and a bond length of r"0 = 2.069(1) angstroms. The results of this study are compared with experimental data for the coinage metal silicides. Additionally, time-of-flight mass spectrometric results indicate that a variety of polyatomic metal silicides are formed in our molecular jet expansion.