The standard description of the vibrational and rotational motion of polyatomic molecules, as expressed by the distortable rotor/harmonic oscillator approximation, provides an adequate description of the molecular quantum states only in regions of low total state density. When the total state density is large, exceeding 100 states/cm(-1), the vibrational dynamics are "dissipative" and the fundamental process of intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution is operative. The presence of intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution leads to molecular quantum states of a qualitatively different nature. With respect to a normal-mode vibrational basis, these quantum states are "highly mixed" in their vibrational character and represent nuclear motion that is a combination of all the normal-mode motions. This review describes frequency domain spectroscopy techniques designed to probe the vibrational, rotational, and structural composition of these eigenstates. Recent work that investigates spectroscopy between highly mixed states is also reviewed.
Rotationally resolved microwave (MW) and ultraviolet (UV) spectra of jet-cooled tropolone have been obtained in S(0) and S(1) electronic states using Fourier-transform microwave and UV-laser/molecular-beam spectrometers. In the ground electronic state, the MW spectra of all heavy-atom isotopomers including one (18)O and four (13)C isotopomers were observed in natural abundance. The OD isotopomer was obtained from isotopically enriched samples. The two lowest tunneling states of each isotopomer except (18)O have been assigned. The observed inversion splitting for the OD isotopomer is 1523.227(5) MHz. For the asymmetric (13)C structures, the magnitudes of tunneling-rotation interactions are found to diminish with decreasing distance between the heavy atom and the tunneling proton. In the limit of closest approach, the 0(+) state of (18)O was well fitted to an asymmetric rotor Hamiltonian, reflecting significant changes in the tautomerization dynamics. Comparisons of the substituted atom coordinates with theoretical predictions at the MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ level of theory suggest the localized 0(+) and 0(-) wave functions of the heavier isotopes favor the C-OH and C=O forms of tropolone, respectively. The only exception occurs for the (13)C-OH and (13)C[Double Bond]O structures which correlate to the 0(-) and 0(+) states, respectively. These preferences reflect kinetic isotope effects as quantitatively verified by the calculated zero-point energy differences between members of the asymmetric atom pairs. From rotationally resolved data of the 0(+) <--0(+) and 0(-) <--0(-) bands in S(1), line-shape fits have yielded Lorentzian linewidths that differ by 12.2(16) MHz over the 19.88(4) cm(-1) interval in S(1). The fluorescence decay rates together with previously reported quantum yield data give nonradiative decay rates of 7.7(5) x 10(8) and 8.5(5) x 10(8) s(-1) for the 0(+) and 0(-) levels of the S(1) state of tropolone.
The asymmetric –CH2(F) stretch spectrum of 2-fluoroethanol near 2980 cm−1 has been rotationally assigned using microwave-infrared double-resonance spectroscopy methods in an electric-resonance optothermal molecular-beam spectrometer. The eigenstate-resolved infrared spectrum shows the effects of intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution (IVR) through the fragmentation of each rotational level of the vibrationally excited state into a set of transitions. From the spectrum we determine the IVR lifetime of the asymmetric –CH2(F) stretch to be 275 ps. The measured vibrational state density at 2980 cm−1 is 44 states/cm−1, and matches the value for the total state density obtained from a direct count. This agreement suggests that vibrational states of both the Gg′ and Tt conformers are coupled by the intramolecular dynamics. From measurements of the c-type pure rotational transitions of the Gg′ conformer we determine that the tunneling splitting for the Gg′ ground state is less than 35 kHz. The infrared spectrum is characterized by a large number of closely spaced infrared transitions. The clustering of vibrational energy levels is attributed to the weak interaction between the degenerate Gg′ and nondegenerate Tt vibrational states. This lifting of the effective Gg′ parity degeneracy is quantitatively investigated through the shape of the nearest-neighbor level spacing distribution. From this analysis we estimate that the isomerization lifetime for the Gg′ conformer of 2-fluoroethanol is 2 ns.
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