Energy Transfer and Reaction of Excited Metal Atoms and Dimers

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The Experimental Physical Chemistry Program supports Professor Breckenridge in a continuing investigation of the details of energy transfer and chemical reaction involving excited metal atoms and dimers. This work will help contribute to an enhanced general understanding of fundamental processes in collision dynamics. Metal atoms and dimers are being generated using a pulsed laser vaporization source. A second laser produces the excited metal and a third laser is used to probe the products of reaction or inelastic energy transfer after collisional interaction with a target atom or molecule. In addition, Breckenridge is investigating energy transfer and reaction between excited atoms and molecules initially bound in a van der Waals complex. The complexes are first formed in a supersonic expansion following the laser vaporization, the metal atom is selectively excited within the complex, and the resultant products are detected as in the collisional process. This "half-collision" experiment can often be used to provide unique selectivity on the initial molecular geometries, orbital alignments, and angular momenta of interacting systems.