[MOS] MOS 2/28/06

[Zina Queen]

Seminar on
Modern Optics and Spectroscopy


David Pratt, University of Pittsburgh

"Molecular secrets from high resolution laser spectroscopy in the gas phase"

February 28, 2006
12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
34-401


Abstract:

Eigenstate-resolved electronic spectroscopy of large molecules is a 
rapidly developing technique in the field of chemistry.  This talk 
will describe several applications of this technique to both 
structural and dynamical problems in chemistry.  These include 
studies of the geometries of large molecules and how they change when 
they absorb UV light, elucidation of the intermolecular potential 
energy surfaces of a wide variety of van der Waals and hydrogen 
bonded complexes involving water, and the direct observation, in the 
frequency domain, of several dynamical processes including tunneling, 
solvent reorganization, and level mixing via axis tilting, as well as 
IVR, ISC, and vibrational predissociation.   Recent studies of such 
spectra in the presence of electric fields (the Stark effect) and the 
measurement of the induced dipole moment of an isolated molecule also 
will be described.  I will close with a brief description of the 
applications of these techniques to biologically relevant molecules 
in the gas phase.
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