Symmetry breaking in HCl and DCl dimers: A direct near-infrared measurement of interconversion tunneling rates

Abstract
The interconversion tunneling frequencies for (HCl)2 and (DCl)2 are obtained from near-infrared absorption spectra of the H(D)Cl stretching transitions, to spectroscopic precision for the mixed 35Cl–37Cl dimers. A phenomenological model of the interconversion process explains several experimental observations, and provides good estimates of the splittings expected for the 35Cl–35Cl and 37Cl–37Cl species.