Professor Vala is supported by the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program and the Chemical Instrumentation Program in spectroscopic studies of the electronic and magnetic properties of dimeric and trimeric transition metal clusters (both homonuclear and heteronuclear), small carbon clusters, and metal carbides, all isolated in rare gas matrices. These species can play central roles in heterogeneous catalysis, nucleation, chemisorption, and organo-metallic chemistry. Details of ground and excited state assignments, magnetic moments, spin-orbit splittings, and cluster geometries are being learned using a variety of techniques, including absorption, magnetic circular dichroism (MCD), magnetic linear dichroism (MLD), MCD and MLD saturation spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and double resonance techniques (visible/infrared and microwave/MCD). Also being studied are various interactions with the supporting matrix, including crystal field splittings, site symmetries, and Jahn-Teller interactions.
