The research programme involves the laser spectroscopy of gas-phase, metal-containing cluster compounds. The objectives are to generate and study a variety of metal compounds, mostly small diatomic and triatomic species, by observing their spectra. To accomplish this, the compounds are created using the technique of laser-ablation in a pulsed molecular beam apparatus.

The laser-ablation technique is an extremely versatile means of putting a sample of interest into the gas-phase. This is accomplished by using a high-power pulsed laser to vaporize atoms from a target and then entraining these atoms in an inert carrier gas. This carrier gas may or may not be doped with a reactant. The resulting gas mixture is expanded into a vacuum chamber creating a molecular beam. Diatomic and triatomic cluster species are created by condensation during this expansion. The molecular beam is then interrogated with another laser and the resulting laser- induced fluorescence is monitored. Analysis of the fluorescence spectra allows us to precisely measure the nature of the ground and excited states. As well, at the high resolution obtainable with this technique, the electron spin and nuclear hyperfine structures become apparent. These structures provide other important information about bonding in the molecule and may also be used to test the reliability of theoretical calculations.

The molecular compounds of particular interest are:
 

• metal monocarbonyls,
• metal superoxides, and
• bimetallic diatomic molecules.

List of publications