Professor Richard N. Zare is supported by a grant from The Experimental Physical Chemistry Program to study state-to-state reaction dynamics using a combination of molecular beam and laser spectroscopic techniques. This research is of fundamental importance in understanding the physics underlying simple chemical transformations at the molecular level. The objective of Zare's research program is to obtain quantum state-specific information on the dynamics of elementary gas-phase chemical reactions. This is accomplished through the synthesis of molecular beam and laser spectroscopic methods. Beam techniques permit the study of isolated molecules and the investigation of reactive encounters, one collision at a time. Laser techniques permit the preparation of reagents (state selection) and the interrogation of reaction products (state detection). Special emphasis is placed on experiments that use a tunable infrared source or stimulated Raman pumping for preparing reagents in individual rovibronic states and use tunable UV sources for the quantum-state-specific detection of molecular and atomic products. State-to-state information gathered in this manner enables chemists to understand how reactions occur by relating detailed observations to scattering calculations carried out on realistic potential energy surfaces that describe the forces experienced by reagents and products during a chemical transformation.
