Indiana University South Bend proposes to incorporate low-cost laser-based experiments into its curriculum. A pulsed nitrogen/dye laser and associated electronics will be used in general and introductory chemistry laboratories to measure the speed of light. This experiment will introduce students to the time scale that is measured by lasers. The same equipment will be used in upper-level laboratories in luminescent lifetime experiments to probe excited states of molecules and tm study chemical events such as the collision-induced energy transfer between excited metal complexes and organic quenchers. The computer-based data acquisition which will be employed will remove the "black-box" approach to experimental design and computer software.
