Advances in Laser Chemistry : Proceedings of the Conference on Advances in Laser Chemistry, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA, March 20–22, 1978

The laser as a radiation source with temporal and spatial coherence has made a tremendous impact in the different fields of science. As a result, new and exciting research has been developing allover the world. Laser spectro­ scopy shares a large fraction of this research, and in the last decade nu­ merous books and monographs have been published on this subject. Most of these books and monographs contain the work done in the physics community. Very few books represent the advances made in laser chemistry, a field that is flourishing and whose future is indeed very exciting. It was felt that a meeting that focused on the important questions being asked in the chemistry community, and on new and possible directions in laser chemistry, was needed. This three-day conference, held at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, on March 20-22, 1978, covered five important areas in laser chemistry: Laser-induced chemistry, picosecond processes and techniques, nonlinear optical spectroscopy and dephasing processes, multiphoton exci­ tation in molecules, and molecular dynamics by molecular beams. Front Matter....Pages I-X Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Internal Energy Transfer in Isolated Molecules: Ergodic and Nonergodic Behavior....Pages 2-42 Spectroscopy and Relaxation of Vibrationally Excited HCO Radicals....Pages 43-47 Dye Laser-Induced Photochemistry....Pages 48-61 Chemical Applications of Lasers....Pages 62-70 A Direct Measure of the Partitioning of Electronic, Vibrational, Rotational, and Translational Energies in Unimolecular Processes....Pages 71-73 Laser Synthetic Chemistry and Laser Photogeneration of Catalysis....Pages 74-81 Vibrational Excitation in the Products of S-Tetrazine Photolysis....Pages 82-87 Deuterium Enrichment by CW CO 2 Laser Induced Vibrational Photochemistry....Pages 88-92 IR Photodissociation of Fluorinated Ethanes and Ethylenes: Collisional Effects in the Multiple Photon Absorption Process....Pages 93-96 Front Matter....Pages 97-97 Vibrational and Electronic Relaxation in Moderate Sized Systems....Pages 98-107 Picosecond Emission Spectroscopy with an Ultraviolet Sensitive Streak Camera....Pages 108-125 Picosecond Studies of Some Ultrafast Events in Bacterial Photosynthesis....Pages 126-144 Advances in Subpicosecond Spectroscopic Techniques....Pages 145-148 Picosecond Dynamics of the Formation of Charge Transfer States in 9,9′-Bianthryl....Pages 149-154 Fluorescence Spectroscopy of Ultrashort-Lived States of Aromatic Compounds....Pages 155-162 Picosecond Studies of Unimolecular Processes....Pages 163-169 Picosecond Chromodynamics of Electrons in Fluids....Pages 170-178 First Observation of the Formation Process of Squid Hypsorhodopsin by Picosecond Spectroscopy....Pages 179-186 Picosecond Laser Studies of a Stilbene Laser Dye....Pages 187-194 Front Matter....Pages 195-195 Theory of Optical Dephasing in Condensed Phases....Pages 196-222 Front Matter....Pages 195-195 The Origin of Vibrational Dephasing in Liquids and Solids....Pages 223-234 Thermal Lensing Spectroscopy in the Condensed Phase....Pages 235-248 The Use of Monochromatically Excited Resonant Light Scattering as a Probe of Ultra Short T 1 and T 2 Type Relaxation Processes in Excited Electronic States....Pages 249-257 Molecular Mechanisms for Dephasing: Toward a Unified Treatment of Gases, Solids and Liquids....Pages 258-270 Molecular Spectroscopic Aspects of the Third Order Susceptibility....Pages 271-276 Coherent Anti-Stokes Resonance Raman Spectra of Highly Fluorescent Compounds....Pages 277-283 Applications of Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy at NRL....Pages 284-291 Absolute Fluorescence Yields by Thermal Blooming: Fluorescein and Cresyl Violet....Pages 292-296 Front Matter....Pages 297-297 Energy Redistribution in Molecules in the Quasi-Periodic and Ergodic Regimes....Pages 298-307 Crossed Laser and Molecular Beams Studies of Multiphoton Dissociation....Pages 308-319 Multiphoton Ionization Spectroscopy of Polyatomic Molecules....Pages 320-335 Two-Photon Spectroscopy by Elliptical Polarization State Alteration....Pages 336-342 Doppler-Free Two-Photon Excitation of the Vacuum Ultraviolet Absorption Spectrum of CO....Pages 343-346 The Two-Photon Spectroscopy of All-Trans Retinal and Related Polyenes....Pages 347-354 Broadband Detection of Two-Photon Absorption by Intracavity Dye Laser Spectroscopy....Pages 355-361 Multiphoton Dissociation of Molecules with Low Power CW Infrared Lasers....Pages 362-373 Collisional Effects in Multiple Photon IR Absorption....Pages 374-381 Front Matter....Pages 383-383 Reaction Dynamics by Molecular Beams....Pages 384-397 Structure and Dynamics of Van Der Waals Molecules....Pages 398-407 Chemical Dynamics Investigated by Laser Probes....Pages 408-425 Front Matter....Pages 383-383 Laser-Assisted Excitive Penning Ionization....Pages 426-432 Photo-Induced Vibrational Predissociation of Van Der Waals Molecules....Pages 433-436 Time Resolved Emission from Benzophenone in a Molecular Beam....Pages 437-442 A Molecular Beam Study of the Selective Dissociation of SF 6 : The Influence of Laser Wavelength and Energy....Pages 443-448 Time and Frequency Resolved Laser Studies on CS 2 Discrete and Continuum fluorescence....Pages 449-454 High Resolution Spectra of Symmetric Molecules: Understanding Rotation and Permutation Dynamics....Pages 455-463 Back Matter....Pages 465-466