9451395 Endres A pulsed laser system will be used to upgrade several upper level chemistry laboratories. This is a very versatile system which demonstrates modern techniques in spectroscopy and allows a wide range of chemical and physical phenomena to be explored. A nitrogen laser will provide very short ultraviolet light pulses suitable for initiating spectroscopic and kinetics studies. The electronics will permit students to follow process on the nanosecond and microsecond time scale. A dye laser accessory extends the output throughout the visible range. The primary use will be in an upper level integrated Analytical-Physical Chemistry laboratory course. The students will study the lifetime of excited states through fluorescence. They will observe short lived reaction intermediates and will study the kinetics of the quenching of fluorescence. The apparatus will enhance current student work; for example, we will use Raman spectra to complement the current Infrared spectroscopy module. Several experiments are directed at areas of Materials Science including time resolved studies of photoconductivity in polyacetylene, the luminescence of microporous silicon, and the study of quantum size effects in the fluorescence of metal sulfide clusters.
