Imaging In Molecular Dynamics PDF Download

Product imaging has been used to investigate several processes important to a fundamental understanding of combustion. The imaging technique produces a "snapshot" of the three-dimensional velocity distribution of a state-selected reaction product. Research in three main areas is planned or underway. First, product imaging has been used to investigate the reactive scattering of radicals or atoms with species important in combustion. These experiments, while more difficult than studies of inelastic scattering or photodissociation, are now becoming feasible. They provide both product distributions of important processes as well as angular information important to the interpretation of reaction mechanisms. Second, the imaging technique has been used to measure rotationally inelastic energy transfer on collision of closed-shell species with important combustion radicals. Such measurements improve our knowledge of intramolecular potentials and provide important tests of ab initio calculations. Finally, experiments using product imaging have explored the vacuum ultraviolet photodissociation of O2, N2O, SO2, CO2 and other important species. Little is known about the highly excited electronic states of these molecules and, in particular, how they dissociate. These studies provide product vibrational energy distributions as well as angular information that can aid in understanding the symmetry and crossings among the excited electronic states.