Spectroscopic studies of molecular ions and radicals in thenlow frequency regime

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Molecular ions and radicals are highly reactive intermediates at normal temperatures and pressures. Despite their short lifetimes, these entities are of great importance as they drive numerous chemical processes such as combustion of fuels, polymerization to produce plastics, formation of astronomical objects and oxidative stress in wound healing.Although molecular ions and radicals are fundamental to many chemical reactions, little is known about their structures and dynamics because it is difficult to produce and trap them in the laboratory on time scales suitable for detailed experimental study. This research program combines high resolution spectroscopic techniques with ion sources and mass spectrometry to obtain rotational and vibrational spectra for a range of molecular ions and radicals. The experiments will be conducted at the University of Manitoba and the Canadian Light Source and involve a supersonic jet expansion to cool and isolate the unstable molecules. This serves to prolong their lifetime in the experiment and simplify their spectral signature. The spectra will be analyzed to obtain extremely accurate molecular structures and information about internal motions. These details are necessary to predict the chemical reactivity of molecular ions and radicals in other environments.A large portion of this program involves the exploration of novel experimental schemes. Although mass spectrometry has proven useful for studying ions and radicals in the laser spectroscopy community, its application at the low frequency end of the electromagnetic spectrum remains virtually unexplored.