Dr. Mark A. Berg is supported by a Presidential Young Investigator award from the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program to study ultra-fast processes in disordered condensed matter. These measurements provide valuable insight into chemical energy flow and re-distribution as well as insight into the time scale of various chemical reactions. The influence of the solvent on the product energy distribution following a chemical reaction will be accomplished through the use of femtosecond infrared spectroscopy to monitor the vibrational and orientational states of product fragments following small molecule dissociations. Comparisons with the detailed information available for gas-phase reactions will directly reveal the role of the solvent in the final-state interactions of the reaction.
