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Mixed cationic clusters of nitrogen and hydrogen

The addition of small impurities, such as a single proton charge carrier, in noble gas clusters has recently been shown to have considerable effects on their geometries and stabilities. Here we report on a mass spectrometric study of cationic clusters of N$_2$ molecules and the effects that adding hydrogen, in the form of D$_2$, has on the systems. Protonated nitrogen clusters formed by the breakup of D$_2$ are shown to have similar behaviors as protonated rare gas clusters. For larger systems consisting of different mixtures of intact N$_2$ and D$_2$, the different molecular species are found to sometimes be interchangeable with regards to magic numbers. This is especially true for the (N$_2$)$_n$(D$_2$)$_m$D$^+$ systems with $n+m=17$, which is particularly abundant for all measured combinations of $n$ and $m$.