UF Physical Chemistry (Experimental)
The Brucat Group
http://grove.ufl.edu/~brucat/
brucat@ufl.edu
A Picture Gallery of what we do
Some recent Spectra
Recent Group Publications
Work in Progress
We are a group of experimental Physical Chemists
trying to learn about nature. This is our approach:
The nature of the chemical bond stems
from quantum mechanical behavior of valence electrons and may be understood
from the solution to the Schroedinger equation. Many approaches have been
used to
calculate
this solution (i.e. set of eigenstates) for the isolated molecule; We have
chosen to measure
the eigenvalues of the molecular Hamiltonian spectroscopically. High-resolution
spectroscopy determines eigenvalue energies through the observation of
radiation-induced transitions in the isolated ion. Present laser technology
is capable measuring the frequencies of such transitions with accuracy
far better than any ab initio computational method. The synergy
between spectroscopy and theory is strengthened by such accuracy.
Of late, we have applied a flavor
of high-resolution spectroscopy, called resonant
photodissociation, to open d-shell ion
complexes. These molecules are simple examples
of chemical behavior not yet quantitatively understood. The unique chemical
properties of these species is related to the unquenched electronic orbital
angular momentum and large resultant electron spin, typically observed
in their spectra. This electronic behavior is a harbinger of structure
much more complicated than that of 'organic' molecules but with a geometry
that is much simpler, so we can focus our attention on the fascinating.
PJ Brucat
|| Chemistry || UF