Electronic Stark Effect in Isolated Ion Pairs

Stark spectral shifts of a molecular probe are commonly used to estimate the local electric field in condensed media. The very large fields reported, typically in the 0.1-10 GV m -1 range, are, however, difficult to reproduce in a controlled manner, limiting the calibration of these molecular probes to ranges below 0.1 GV m -1 . In this context, we investigated gas-phase, isolated, molecular ion pairs, where a phenyl ring is immersed in the electric field produced by the nearby ionic groups. The intensity of the electric field is chemically tuned in the 1 GV m -1 range by changing the nature of the cations, and the phenyl ring response is monitored by UV spectroscopy. A quadratic Stark effect is observed, demonstrating the possibility to characterize molecular probes in a solvent-free environment and in the very large field range they typically meet in condensed media such as biological environments.