In this project, funded by the Experimental Physical Chemistry program of the Division of Chemistry, Professor Richard Judge and undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin, Parkside will develop improved theoretical techniques for analyzing high-resolution electronic spectra. Judge and his students will extend their previous work on the rotational analysis of singlet-triplet electronic transitions in symmetric molecules to systems with a single plane of symmetry. Improved computer programs will be written to simulate the spectra, allowing the determination of the structures of asymmetric species in their triplet excited states. The new methods initially will be applied to the singlet-triplet spectrum of thiophosgene for which high-resolution data recently were obtained using optical-optical double resonance methods. The theoretical work will build on collaborations with groups at the University of Kentucky, the University of Akron, and Brock University in Canada, and the improved computer codes will be shared with other investigators in the field. This work will improve our understanding of the photophysics and photochemistry of small molecules of fundamental spectroscopic and atmospheric interest. The research also will provide excellent training for undergraduate chemistry students at the University of Wisconsin, Parkside.
