  We have used laser ablation and helium buffer-gas cooling to produce the
titanium-helium van der Waals molecule at cryogenic temperatures. The molecules
were detected through laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy. Ground-state
Ti-He binding energies were determined for the ground and first rotationally
excited states from studying equilibrium thermodynamic properties, and found to
agree well with theoretical calculations based on newly calculated ab initio
Ti-He interaction potentials, opening up novel possibilities for studying the
formation, dynamics, and non-universal chemistry of van der Waals clusters at
low temperatures.
