Laser spectroscopy of molecular clusters/Torsion mediated IVR/molecule cooling

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This proposal will fund a research program which will tackle important problems in chemical physics outstanding at the present time. It comprises of three parts. The focus of the first part is quantitative measurement of weak intermolecular forces which are vital for understanding many aspects of collisional effects in gases, molecular clustering, condensation/salvation processes and energy transfer between molecules. These intermolecular forces can be directly and precisely probed by means of high-resolution spectroscopy. These results provide a challenge to quantum chemical calculations of weak forces, which thereby helps to advance the state of the theory. The theory in turn can be used for calculations on large systems of biological significance, like protein folding. The second part is concerned with large amplitude twisting of methyl groups (CH3) in molecules and how energy is transferred from the methyl groups to the rest of the molecule. The interest in resolving such basic physical questions relates to the fact that methyl groups are present in many larger molecules that are active in biological environments and it is the large amplitude motion of these groups that determine the structure, dynamical properties and functions of these systems. Finally, objective of the third part is to investigate the feasibility of producing and storing ultra-cold samples of molecules to study long range collective quantum effects, ultra-cold chemistry and their suitability for quantum computation.