Acquisition of a Continuous-Wave Ring Laser for Recording Electronic Spectra of Gaseous, Metal-Containing Free Radicals

通过这项来自主要研究仪器（MRI）项目的奖励，马卡莱斯特学院化学系将获得一个连续波环形激光系统。该设备将用于测量和分析第二排和第三排过渡金属氟化物和氧化物的光谱。PI和他的本科合作者将在多普勒限制分辨率下记录激光激发光谱，以确定新观察到的分子的振动、旋转和精细结构常数。利用互调荧光技术在亚多普勒分辨率下的进一步工作将揭示所观察到的跃迁的超精细结构，这对于识别基态和激发态的电子构型是有用的。此外，该仪器将被用作化学系高级课程和实验室的资源。对理解气相中含过渡金属的小分子的复杂电子结构和光谱的兴趣不断增长。随着高分辨率和高功率可调谐激光源的发展，光谱学家现在可以记录和分配以前很难获取或分析的光谱。这些分子在天文学、催化学、冶金学和有机金属化学等领域都具有实际意义。含有过渡金属的双原子分子显示出最简单的金属键形式，因此可以作为更复杂系统的初始模型。

With this award from the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program, the Department of Chemistry at Macalester College will acquire a continuous-wave ring laser system. This equipment will be used to measure and analyze the optical spectra of second- and third-row transition metal fluorides and oxides. The PI and his undergraduate collaborators will record laser excitation spectra at Doppler-limited resolution in order to determine the vibrational, rotational and fine-structure constants of newly observed molecules. Further work at sub-Doppler resolution utilizing the technique of intermodulated fluorescence will reveal the hyperfine structure of the observed transitions, which is useful for identifying the electronic configurations of the ground and excited states. In addition, the instrumentation will be used as a resource in advanced courses and laboratories in the Chemistry Department. Interest in understanding the complex electronic structure and spectroscopy of small, transition metal-containing molecules in the gas phase continues to grow. With the development of high-resolution and high-power tunable laser sources, spectroscopists can now record and assign spectra that previously were very difficult to acquire or analyze. Such molecules are of practical interest in fields as diverse as astronomy, catalysis, metallurgy and organometallic chemistry. Diatomic molecules containing a transition metal display the simplest form of metal bonding and are therefore relevant as initial models for more complex systems.