In this project in the Physical Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division, Janda will study the vibrational predissociation of rare gas-halogen van der Waals complexes. This is a model problem which will serve as a test of the current state-of-the-art experimental work and theory on clusters. A search will be carried out of the time resolved sequential vibrational relaxation of argon-chlorine complexes. State-to-state dynamics of intramolecular chemical reactions and sequential dynamics of cluster evaporation will be investigated. In order to help interpret the dynamics results, high resolution excitation spectroscopy will be performed to determine the cluster geometry and vibrational structure.
