In this project supported by the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division, Cline will study the preferred molecular trajectories produced in the photodissociation of related but structurally distinct nitrosoalkanes. The experiments will measure the correlation between the angular momentum and velocity vectors of products in the frame of the energized parent nitrosoalkane parent molecule in addition to scalar population distributions among product quantum states. In most experiments the angular momentum distribution of nitric oxide product will be probed by polarized resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization laser spectroscopy. Time-of-flight mass spectrometry techniques or new variations on two-dimensional ion imaging methods will be used to measure velocities and spatial anisotropies in correlation with angular momentum polarization. Experiments will be performed in low-temperature molecular beams or low-pressure effusive jets. The major goals of this project are to examine the influence of molecular rigidity and conformations on product trajectories and to explore preferential helical product trajectories produced in the photodissociation of chiral molecules. The data gathered in this study will reveal useful information about preferential directional forces in molecules. The addition of many such forces from a large number of molecules can result in macroscopic amounts of work from molecule-sized systems such as biological motors and hypothetical nanotechnology devices.
