Spectra and Dynamics of Small Molecules

These seven lectures are intended to serve as an introduction for beginning graduate students to the spectra of small molecules. The author succeeds in illustrating the concepts by using language and metaphors that capture and elegantly convey simple insights into dynamics that lie beyond archival molecular constants. The lectures can simultaneously be viewed as a collection of interlocking special topics that have fascinated the author and his students over the years. Though neither a textbook nor a scholarly monograph, the book provides an illuminating perspective that will benefit students and researchers alike.

Robert Field is the Haslam and Dewey Professor of Chemistry at MIT. His research specialties include dynamics encoded in frequency domain spectra of small, gas phase molecules, at high excitation, where all standard energy level patterns are broken: spectroscopic perturbations, Rydberg states, and unimolecular isomerization. His favorite experimental techniques include Stimulated Emission Pumping and Chirped Pulse Millimeter Wave spectroscopy.