MOLECULAR DYNAMICS AND SPECTROSCOPY BY STIMULATED EMISSION PUMPING

Since the first stimulated emission pumping (SEP)experiments more than a decade ago, this technique has proven powerfulfor studying vibrationally excited molecules. SEP is now widely usedby increasing numbers of research groups to investigate fundamentalproblems in spectroscopy, intramolecular dynamics, intermolecularinteractions, and even reactions. SEP provides rotationallypre-selected spectra of vibrationally highly excited moleculesundergoing large amplitude motions. A unique feature of SEP is theability to access systematically a wide variety of extreme excitationslocalized in various parts of a molecule, and to prepare populationsin specific, high vibrational levels. SEP has made it possible to askand answer specific questions about intramolecular vibrationalredistribution and the role of vibrational excitation in chemicalreactions.