Measuring Electronic Transitions Using Leak-Out Spectroscopy

We demonstrate that leak-out spectroscopy (LOS) can be employed to measure electronic transitions in the visible and infrared range by recording the electronic spectra of nitrogen, diacetylene, and triacetylene cations. LOS promises to be a general single-photon method for measuring gas phase electronic spectra of mass selected bare ions. LOS is especially promising as a potential method for measuring the electronic spectra of bare ions that are highly photostable, which is an important characteristic of interstellar molecules. Therefore, LOS may be a valuable method for searching for the diffuse interstellar bands.