Catalytic Nanocluster Structures and Reactivities

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Over $1 trillion of revenue in the U.S. economy may be accounted for by catalyst technologies. Applications for these technologies range from new and innovative clothing fibres to medicine and alternative energy fuel cells. The underlying physics and chemistry that dictates how and why these processes occur, however, remains largely unknown for many catalytic systems. Now, there is a drive towards understanding catalytic systems on the smallest level, since studying the constituent pieces may lead to a more complete understanding of the bulk material. To do this, we require two laser systems: (1) a Nd:YAG laser as an ablation laser for a nanocluster molecular beam source and (2) an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) laser system as a tuneable probe laser system for interrogating nanocluster species.