Spectra and Dynamics of Small Molecules

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Robert W. Field

   Pages 1-11

3. Hierarchy of Terms in the Effective Hamiltonian

   • Robert W. Field

   Pages 13-31

4. Spectroscopic Perturbations: Homogeneous and Heterogeneous

   • Robert W. Field

   Pages 33-46

5. The Effective Hamiltonian for Diatomic Molecules

   • Robert W. Field

   Pages 47-68

6. Rotation of Polyatomic Molecules

   • Robert W. Field

   Pages 69-84

7. Quantum Beats

   • Robert W. Field

   Pages 85-111

8. The Effective Hamiltonian for Polyatomic Molecule Vibration

   • Robert W. Field

   Pages 113-127

9. Intramolecular Dynamics: Representations, Visualizations, and Mechanisms

   • Robert W. Field

   Pages 129-153

These seven lectures are intended to serve as an introduction for beginning graduate students to the spectra of small molecules. The author succeeds in illustrating the concepts by using language and metaphors that capture and elegantly convey simple insights into dynamics that lie beyond archival molecular constants. The lectures can simultaneously be viewed as a collection of interlocking special topics that have fascinated the author and his students over the years. Though neither a textbook nor a scholarly monograph, the book provides an illuminating perspective that will benefit students and researchers alike.

• Effective Hamiltonians and Perturbation Theory
• Frequency Domain Spectroscopy of Small Molecules
• Gas Phase Spectroscopy of Small Molecules
• Quantum Beats
• Spectroscopic Perturbations
• Unimolecular Dynamics

• Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA

  Robert W. Field

Robert Field is the Haslam and Dewey Professor of Chemistry at MIT. His research specialties include dynamics encoded in frequency domain spectra of small, gas phase molecules, at high excitation, where all standard energy level patterns are broken: spectroscopic perturbations, Rydberg states, and unimolecular isomerization. His favorite experimental techniques include Stimulated Emission Pumping and Chirped Pulse Millimeter Wave spectroscopy.

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