Vibrational Dynamics & Spectroscopy in the Gas Phase and in Superfluid Helium Droplets: Molecules, Radicals, Clusters and Metal Complexes

University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Abstract

Professor Roger Miller of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is funded by the Experimental Physical Chemistry program to perform experimental studies on clusters in superfluid helium droplets. It was recently discovered that superfluid helium is the most homogeneous condensed phase medium. Miller is among the first to utilize this knowledge to conduct spectroscopic measurements at very high resolution on molecules within this medium. Miller has discovered novel cluster structures that form from small molecules such as cyanoacetylene and water in these droplets. The present work extends the helium droplet spectroscopy for novel synthetic uses, for the study of pre-reactive free radicals such as O, H, OH, and CN, for the study of molecules bound to metal clusters, and for the study of solvation of small molecules. Continued exploration of molecular aggregation in liquid helium droplets will play an important role for assessing the opportunities to extend this new self assembly method to larger scale growth processes in bulk liquid helium. Novel cluster synthesis provides valuable data for theorists who attempt to model behavior of molecules such as water in aggregate form. Modeling water and solvation is an important goal for more accurate calculations of biological systems and drug design.