Interplay between permanent dipole moments and polarizability in positron-molecule binding

J. R. Danielson, A. C. L. Jones, J. J. Gosselin, M. R. Natisin, and C. M. Surko

Phys. Rev. A 85, 022709 – Published 17 February 2012; Erratum Phys. Rev. A 85, 039907 (2012)

Abstract

Energy-resolved studies of positron-molecule collisions exhibit vibrational Feshbach resonances in annihilation, thus providing evidence that positrons can bind to these species. The downshifts of the observed resonances from the positions of the vibrational modes provides a measure of the positron-molecule binding energies, which range from 1 to 300 meV. Reported here are annihilation spectra and binding energies for a wider range of chemical species than studied previously, including aldehydes, ketones, formates, acetates, and nitriles. While the measured binding energies show an approximate correlation with molecular dipole polarizability and permanent dipole moment, other effects are important for dipole moments $\geq$ 2.0 D. For these compounds, it appears that localization of the positron wave function near a portion of the molecule leads to enhanced binding and an increased dependence on both the molecular dipole moment and the electron-positron correlations. The relationship of these results to theoretical calculations is discussed.