Laser Experiments for Chemistry and Physics

Description

This book provides a collection of experiments to introduce lasers into the undergraduate curricula in Chemistry and Physics. A variety of experiments are included with different levels of complexity. All have background information, experimental details and the theoretical background necessary to interpret the results.

• Introduces the characteristics and operation of lasers through laboratory experiments designed for the undergraduate curricula in Chemistry and Physics
• Background chapters on optics, laser fundamentals, examples of modern lasers, laser safety, spectroscopy and quantum calculations
• Different kinds of lasers are described as well as their capabilities and applications
• Chapters describe the properties of light, the history of laser invention, the atomic, molecular and optical principles behind how lasers work, and the kinds of lasers available today
• Experiments range in complexity from simple in-class demonstrations to more elaborate configurations for advanced students
• Quantum chemistry calculations integrated throughout experiments
• Advanced material on laser desorption mass spectrometry and tunable laser atomic and molecular spectroscopy
• Useful for undergraduates students in advanced lab classes, for instructors designing these classes, or for graduate students beginning a career in laser science

About the Author(s)

Robert N. Compton, Professor of Chemistry and Physics, Dept Chemistry, University of Tennessee, and Michael A. Duncan, Franklin Professor and Regents' Professor, Dept of Chemistry, University of Georgia

Robert N. Compton was born in Metropolis, IL. The Compton family moved to Oak Ridge, TN during WWII where his father worked on the Manhattan Project. He received degrees in Physics from Berea College (BA), the University of Florida (MS) and the University of Tennessee (PhD). He was a Senior Corporate Fellow at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 1965 to 1995 and has been a Professor of Physics and Chemistry at the University of Tennessee to the present date. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Aarhus, University of Paris, and the FOM Institute in Amsterdam. In 2001, he was an Erskine Fellow at the University of Christchurch, New Zealand. His research interests include negative ions, laser spectroscopy, and molecular chirality.

Michael A. Duncan was born in Greenville, SC, where he attended Furman University (B.S. 1976). In graduate school at Rice University he worked with Prof. Richard E. Smalley (Ph.D. 1982). He was a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA) in Boulder, CO with Prof. Stephen Leone. He joined the University of Georgia faculty in 1983. He uses laser vaporization, molecular beams, mass spectrometry and laser spectroscopy to study metal clusters, ion-molecule complexes and carbocations. Duncan is Fellow of the American Physical Society (2001) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2004), and Senior Editor of the Journal of Physical Chemistry since 1998. He is recipient (2007) of an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship at the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin and won the Experimental Physical Chemistry Award (2011) given by the American Chemical Society.

Table of Contents

1:Elementary Properties of light
2:Basic Optics
3:General Characteristics of Lasers
4:Laboratory Lasers
5:Nonlinear Optics
6:Laser Safety
7: The Speed of Light
8:The Speed of Sound in Gases, Liquids and Solids
9:Thermal Lens Calorimetry
10:Laser Refractometry
11:Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy
12:Laser Desorption Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry
13:Multiphoton Ionization Mass Spectrometry of Metal Carbonyls
14:Optical Spectroscopy
15:Quantum Chemistry Calculations
16:Multiphoton Ionization and Third Harmonic Generation in Alkali Atoms
17:Electronic Absorption Spectroscopy of Molecular Iodine
18:Electronic Spectroscopy of Iodine using REMPI
19:Raman Spectroscopy under Liquid Nitrogen
20:Optical Rotary Dispersion of a Chiral Liquid (?-pinene)
21:Faraday Rotation
22:Fermi Resonance in CO2
23:Photoacoustic Spectroscopy of Methane
24:Optogalvanic Spectroscopy
25:Diode Laser Atomic Spectroscopy
26:Vacuum Ultraviolet Spectroscopy using THG in Rare Gases
27:Raman Shifting and Stimulated Electronic Raman Scattering (SERS)
28:Fluorescence Lifetime of Iodine Vapor
29:Raman Spectroscopy Applied to Molecular Conformational Analysis
30:Diffraction of Light from Blood Cells
31:Inversion of Sucrose by Acid Catalyzed Hydrolysis
Appendix I. Recommended Components and Equipment
Appendix II. Fast Signal Measurements

Reviews

"Laser Experiments for Chemistry and Physics is a file resource for experienced physics instructors looking to set up new experiments in advanced lab courses. Compton and Duncan provide both guidance and inspiration in their outstanding collection of laser experiments." - Jason Stalnaker, Physics Today

"a high-quality and useful book ... instructors and students specially focused in the fields of physical chemistry and spectroscopy will most likely find the highest interest; however, readers interested in broader areas of chemistry and physics should also find this work very useful. If you belong to this potential audience, the purchase of Laser Experiments for Chemistry and Physics will doubtless be a good investment." - Germano Montemezzani, Journal of Applied Crystallography