Dynamics of Diatomic Molecules in a Chemical Trap

Abstract

NMR data of hydrogen (H2, HD, and D2) trapped in the octahedral sites of solid C60 is shown. The trapped hydrogen can be considered as a prototype system to study the coupling between the nuclear spin and orientational (i.e. lattice) degrees of freedom of a molecular quantum object. Rotational‐state selective NMR spectra are obtained and lead to a map of the perturbed rotor wave functions. Cage confinement induces a squeezing of the rotational ground state which can be quantified by comparison with molecular‐beam data of the free molecules.