Stabilization of barium dimers on clusters: Reactions of Ba2 with Cl2 and O2 on large argon clusters

Barium dimers have been produced and stabilized by the successive pickup of two barium atoms on large argon clusters (average size of 8000). By adding chlorine and oxygen molecules, chemiluminescent reactions of these dimers have been observed. This technique of dimer formation can be extended to higher order clusters to study reactions of cold metallic clusters.