With this grant from the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division, Professor Goodman will continue his benchmark work on elucidating the detailed motions of the atoms in the benzene molecule, when this molecule is subjected to ultraviolet light. The thrust of this research is to generate accurate potential surfaces for the fundamental region of the ground and lowest excited singlet states of benzene. These benzene experimental force fields will provide badly needed benchmarks for calibrating theoretical harmonic and anharmonic potential surface models for both closed shell ground and open shell excited states. Two-laser experiments on isotopically labelled benzene, combined with conventional jet experiments, should allow a complete harmonic force field to be constructed for the benzene excited state.
