The role of rotational tunneling in the metastable decay of rare gas cluster ions

The decay of (Ar+3)*→Ar+2+Ar is found to be metastable on a time scale longer than 40 μs. Theoretical considerations are presented for these slow metastable dissociation rates reported in this and other studies. From model calculations it is inferred that tunneling lifetimes from 10−10 to 10 s may be observed.