Ion spectroscopy of reaction intermediates

I will present helium tagging photodissociation spectroscopy that we have developed for spectroscopic investigation of reactive ions. The focus will be on the characterization of hyper-valent metal-oxo complexes. These extremely reactive complexes are used for challenging C-H activation reactions. Their characterization is often difficult. Our method allows us not only to determine the metal-oxo stretching vibration, but also to determine the spin-state of the reactive complexes.