US-Netherlands Cooperative Research On Ultra High-ResolutionLaser Spectroscopy in Molecular Beams: The Transition from Order to Chaos.

该奖项支持匹兹堡大学的大卫·W·普拉特教授与奈梅亨天主教大学物理系的W·L·米尔茨博士合作进行研究。他们正在进行超高分辨率激光实验，以研究大分子的电子激发态中发生的各种动力学现象，这些大分子包括二苯甲酮、萘、喹啉、嘧啶、吡嗪、水杨酸甲酯和几个有机分子/稀有气体溶剂团。所研究的现象包括分子内振动弛豫、内转换、系间交叉、团簇形成和化学反应。他们的实验将利用在紫外线、分子束和在线数据采集系统中运行的最先进的连续波染料激光。美国和荷兰的团队为这项联合研究带来了高分辨率光谱学和化学动力学方面的互补专业知识和方法。尽管他们现在拥有类似的设备，但这家荷兰集团在这一分子光谱学领域是公认的领导者。他们之前的合作使匹兹堡大学的新一代“激光光谱仪”的设计和制造成为可能。分子对光的吸收会产生电子激发态。正是这种状态的性质，而不是基态，决定了系统的化学和物理行为。这项合作研究中使用的复杂技术将首次揭示几种具有生物和化学兴趣的化合物的分子本征态结构。这一知识将使控制化学键断裂和形成机制成为可能，从而允许控制用光进行的化学反应。

This award supports Professor David W. Pratt of the University of Pittsburgh to pursue research collaboratively with Dr. W. L. Meerts of the Physics Department of the Catholic University of Nijmegen. They are carrying out ultra high-resolution laser experiments to examine a variety of dynamical phenomena occurring in the electronically excited states of large molecules, including benzophenone, napthalene, quinoline, pyrimidine, pyrazine, methyl salicylate and several organic molecule/rare gas solvent clusters. The phenomena under study include intramolecular vibrational relaxation, internal conversion, intersystem crossing, cluster formation, and chemical reactions. Their experiments will utilize state-of-the-art continuous wave dye lasers operating in the ultraviolet, molecular beams, and on-line data acquisition systems. The U.S. and Dutch groups bring complementary expertise and approaches in high resolution spectroscopy and chemical dynamics to this joint research. Although they now have similar equipment, the Dutch group is the acknowledged leader in this area of molecular spectroscopy. Their prior collaboration made possible the design and fabrication of a new generation of "laser spectrograph" at the University of Pittsburgh. The absorption of light by a molecule creates an electronically excited state. It is the properties of this state, rather than the ground state, that dictate the chemical and physical behavior of the system. The sophisticated techniques being used in this collaborative research will reveal molecular eigenstate structures of several compounds of biological and chemical interest for the first time. This knowledge will make it possible to control chemical bond breaking and forming mechanisms, and thus permit the control of chemical reactions with light.