Potential Energy Surfaces and Internal Dynamics of Weakly Bound Systems

Kenneth Leopold博士获得了实验物理化学项目的资助，从事弱束缚范德华配合物和金属团簇的结构和大振幅运动的研究。利奥波德博士将使用最先进的远红外技术来研究这些星团的振动特性。这种非常高分辨率的光谱信息是无法通过任何其他实验方法获得的。最先进的远红外技术具有高灵敏度、高分辨率和完全覆盖整个远红外区域的特点，将与已建立的超音速射流膨胀方法相结合，研究各种范德华物质的低频振动谱。这项工作与大多数其他关于范德华复合物的研究不同，因为它涉及到软分子间振动的直接激发，并且通过一种新技术使可调谐的远红外辐射从两个二氧化碳激光器之间的频率差产生成为可能。这些结果对于测试和发展计算分子间势面和处理分子中大振幅运动问题的新理论方法至关重要。此外，对金属三聚体的旋转分辨振动光谱的研究将提供有关这些物质的结构、振动频率和赝旋势垒高度的高质量信息。

Dr. Kenneth Leopold is supported by a grant from The Experimental Physical Chemistry Program to perform studies on the structures and large amplitude motions of weakly bound van der Waals complexes and metal clusters. Dr. Leopold will use a new state-of-the-art far infrared technology to study the vibrational properties of these clusters. This very high resolution spectroscopic information is not available through any other experimental approach. State-of-the-art far infrared technology featuring high sensitivity, high resolution, and complete coverage throughout the far infrared region will be combined with established methods of supersonic jet expansions to study the low frequency vibrational spectra of a wide variety of van der Waals species. This work is distinct from the majority of other studies on van der Waals complexes in that it involves direct excitation of the soft intermolecular vibrations, and is made possible by a new technique in which tunable far infrared radiation is generated from the difference frequency between two carbon dioxide lasers. The results will be crucial to the testing and development of new theoretical methods for computing intermolecular potential surfaces and for treating the problem of large amplitude motion in molecules. In addition, the examination of rotationally resolved vibrational spectra of metal trimers will provide high quality information regarding the structure, vibrational frequencies, and barrier heights to pseudorotation in these species.