About Gas Phase Spectroscopy and Dynamics

Gas phase physical chemistry at Wisconsin has a strong chemical flavor. One active research area in gas phase spectroscopy and dynamics is the study of highly vibrationally excited molecules prepared by tunable laser pulses. Nanosecond and picosecond lasers probe vibrational structure and dissociation dynamics of polyatomic molecules. These techniques have revealed bond-specific photodissociation and bimolecular reaction. Another active area is the spectroscopy and chemical reactivity of small gas phase species containing transition metal atoms, an area related to organometallic and catalytic chemistry. Other gas phase experiments study rotational, vibrational, and electronic spectra of molecular ions and neutral free radicals by direct absorption, by multiphoton ionization and by photoelectron spectroscopy. Sophisticated detection schemes provide highly sensitive and specific probes of reaction species important in plasma processing.