Dr. Scoles plans to carry out a program of research involving the application of newly discovered picosecond infrared tunable laser techniques to the study of molecular relaxation and chemical dynamics in simple solutions and clusters. He also plans to study the photoevaporation of molecules from the surface of a cluster and van der Waals bond-exchange reactions involving molecular dimers. This research has the potential to bridge the gap between free-molecular and solvated behavior and thus to provide insight into the properties of the latter. Furthermore the studies of simple clusters may lead to a better understanding of finite-size materials.
