Neutral molecular ZnX (X=O, OH, N) compounds in a molecular beam

Neutral ZnO and ZnOH molecules could be produced in a molecular beam by expansion of laser ablated zinc together with H2O, O2 or N2O seeded in a rare gas (Ar, Ne, He). Due to the characteristic Zn isotope distribution, the zinc containing compounds, ionized with a 100 fs laser pulse, could unambiguously be identified with a TOF mass spectrometer. The abundance of ZnOH produced in our experiments exceeds the one of ZnO and ZnN by orders of magnitude if H2O is present in the system. Small quantities of (ZnO)2H and Zn2(OH)3 compounds could also be observed. To our knowledge this is the first evidence for the occurrence of neutral ZnO and ZnOH molecules in a molecular beam.