Spectroscopic Probes of Molecular Structure and Dynamics

化学系的化学结构、动力学和机制（CSDM-A）项目将资助耶鲁大学的Patrick Vaccaro教授研究分子与光和其他分子相互作用的微妙影响。该奖项支持的两个工作重点之一是研究光与具有“手性”的分子相互作用的方式——例如，许多分子，特别是生物学上重要的分子具有不可重叠的镜像，这是一种“手性”。在Vaccaro实验室开发的光谱方法旨在区分这些分子的不同手性异构体，并为对这种现象建模感兴趣的理论家提供准确的基准。另一方面，这项工作将着眼于弱相互作用的分子，以提高我们对分子之间非常微妙的力量的理解。Vaccaro教授的研究生将接受光学和真空科学以及仪器设计和构造方面的培训。在该奖项支持的外展项目中，Vaccaro教授和他的学生将与纽黑文公立学校的学生和老师一起工作。瓦卡罗研究小组是多元化的，历史上有大量的女性科学家。帕特里克·瓦卡罗教授和他的研究小组将研究一套有趣的光谱系统。在一组实验中，瓦卡罗和他的团队将扩展他们过去在气相分离分子的热交换光谱方面的工作。在这项工作的下一阶段，Vaccaro小组将使用腔环荡偏振法来探测气相中一些相当复杂的手性分子的电子圆二色性和电子圆二色性，包括分子，如(R) -降冰片烯酮和非常弱的旋光性物质环丙烷-1,2-d2。这项工作得益于与一些著名理论团体的合作。新的热学研究将着眼于溶解在稀有气体基质中的手性溶质。这些后期的研究希望研究分子在弱扰动溶剂中的热响应变化。在另一项研究中，Vaccaro小组将通过多种光谱方法（包括双色共振四波混合光谱）研究苯-邻苯二酮二聚体，研究芳香分子之间的弱相互作用。

With this award, the Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms (CSDM-A) Program of the Division of Chemistry is funding Professor Patrick Vaccaro of Yale University to investigate subtle effects in the way molecules interact with light and with other molecules. One of the two thrusts in the work supported by this award looks at the way light interacts with molecules with "handedness" -- for example, many molecules, especially biologically important molecules have non-superimposable mirror images, which is one kind of "handedness." The spectroscopic methods being developed in the Vaccaro laboratory aim to discriminate between different handed isomers of these molecules, as well as providing accurate benchmarks for theorists interested in modelling this phenomena. In the other thrust, the work will look at weakly interacting molecules in order to improve our understanding of the very subtle forces that molecules feel for each other. Professor Vaccaro's research students will be trained in optical and vacuum science as well as instrument design and construction. In an outreach project supported by this award, Professor Vaccaro and his students will work with students and teachers in the New Haven Public Schools. The Vaccaro research group is diverse, and has historically had a large number of female scientists. Professor Patrick Vaccaro and his research group will study an interesting set of spectroscopic systems. In one set of experiments, Vaccaro and his group will extend their past work on the chiroptical spectroscopy of isolated molecules in the gas phase. In the next phase of this work, the Vaccaro group will use cavity ringdown polarimetry to probe the electronic circular dichroism and electronic circular dichroism of some fairly complex chiral molecules in the gas phase, including molecules like (R) - norbornenone and the very weakly optically active species cyclopropane-1,2-d2. This work benefits from the collaboration with a number of prominent theoretical groups. New chiroptical investigations will look at chiral solutes dissolved in a rare-gas matrix. These later studies hope to investigate the changes in chiroptical response for molecules in weakly perturbing solvents. In a separate thrust, the Vaccaro group will investigate the weak interactions between aromatic molecules by studying benzene-tropolone dimers with a variety of spectroscopic methods, including two-color resonant four-wave mixing spectroscopy.