Dr. Hanson has recently initiated a program to investigate inner shell electron excitations of diatomic, triatomic, and small polyatomic molecules specifically chosen to enable the properties of different types of chemical bonds to be characterized. This program is one of the few in the world that is systemically studying such properties. Dr. Hanson will use tunable and monochromatic soft x-ray radiation obtained from the National Synchrotron Light Source VUV Ring at Brookhaven National Laboratory to excited gas phase molecules selectively in the region of the K or L edge of the constituent atoms of the molecular systems. Information about the primary excitation process and the subsequent series of events will be obtained by using the techniques of photoelectron spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy, and fluorescence spectroscopy, including coincidence measurements. One of the prime objectives of this research is establishing the correlation between Auger decay chananels and fragmentation channels. The information gained in these experiments is expected to be of benefit to technology and a variety of disciplines.
