Thursday, September 26, 2013
Vanesa Vaquero Vara
Department of Chemistry, UVM"Microwave Spectroscopy: An Insight Into Molecules In Gas Phase"
Microwave spectroscopy is the study of transitions between different rotational levels for a specific molecule. If the target species is seeded in the supersonic expansion of an inert carrier gas (He, Ne, Ar) and the experimental data is taken in the time domain, the gains in intensity and sensitivity makes this a suitable tool to investigate physical properties of the molecule in gas phase. Nowadays the most conventional microwave spectroscopy technique is known as molecular beam Fourier transform microwave (MB-FTMW) spectroscopy and it provides an indirect methodology to obtain information about bond parameters, dipole moments, large amplitude motions and direct evidence of intra- and intermolecular interactions. With advances in technology, a new technique, called chirped pulse (CP) FTMWS, has become more accessible, with the ability to acquire the rotational spectrum (6-18 GHz) in less time and with a low consumption of sample. During the seminar I will introduce the technique and explain some of its capabilities and applications through the most recent examples obtained in the laboratory.