Quantifying Hydrogen Bond Cooperativity in Water: VRT Spectroscopy of the Water Tetramer

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Abstract
Measurement of the far-infrared vibration-rotation tunneling spectrum of the perdeuterated water tetramer is described. Precisely determined rotational constants and relative intensity measurements indicate a cyclic quasi-planar minimum energy structure, which is in agreement with recent ab initio calculations. The O-O separation deduced from the data indicates a rapid exponential convergence to the ordered bulk value with increasing cluster size. Observed quantum tunneling splittings are interpreted in terms of hydrogen bond rearrangements connecting two degenerate structures.