High Resolution Spectroscopy of Molecules and Small Clusters in Molecular Beams

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of high resolution spectroscopy of molecules and small clusters in molecular beams with the aid of lasers and microwaves. With the increasing popularity of research on clusters, high resolution spectroscopy is far from being applied to large clusters, but there is a beginning of investigation of small metal clusters with narrow band lasers. As clusters of all sizes are produced in the commonly used supersonic jet expansion, a cluster size specific detection of spectra is needed. Monitoring laser induced fluorescence is, therefore, replaced by resonant two photon ionization with size selective detection of ions in a quadrupole mass spectrometer. The chapter describes an experiment for the study of hyperfine structure in several electronic states in which a collimated beam of alkaline earth monohalide radicals produced in a high-temperature oven interacted with laser and microwave radiation.