Infrared Laser Techniques to Study the Structure and Dynamics of Transient Species

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/0584-8539(87)80101-0

Infrared multiple photon laser induced chemistry has moved over the past ten years between the extremes of heralding truly intramolecular selective chemistry and being merely a laboratory curiosity.The maturing of infrared multiple photon excitation (IRMPE) now finds IRMPE used routinely in a variety of experiments including spectroscopy, chemical kinetics, thermodynamics and laser driven synthesis.Continuously tunable infrared laser sources now allow a much wider range of molecules to be excited, and the photophysics of IRMPE to be probed in greater detail, than was possible with only limited line tunability.Examples of both the pfotophysics of IRMPE and applications to kinetics and spectroscopy are discussed, including vibrational photodissociation spectra of isolated metal clusters.