Lasers and Chemical Change

Lasers and chemical change is the study of radiation and molecules in dis equilibrium. The distinguishing feature of such systems is the extreme de parture from thermal equilibrium: the radiation is usually confined to a narrow frequency range, is well coll imated, and is far brighter than black body radiation; the chemical composition and also the distribution of mole cules over their different energy states are often markedly displaced from that expected at equilibrium. Such systems can be used as a source of laser radiation and, reversedly, lasers can rapidly and selectively displace mole cular systems from equilibrium. The subsequent evolution of the initially prepared state can then be monitored - again using lasers. One purpose of this book is to introduce the concepts required to d- cuss systems of radiation and molecules in disequilibrium. These include the physics of (laser) radiation and of radiation-matter interaction and molecular structure and spectroscopy. Excellent textbooks of these topics are available and our survey (in Chap. 3) is only intended to accent the es sential points, with special reference to atomic and molecular radiation physics. Considerably more attention is given to the topic of disequilibrium in chemical systems (Chap. 2). In particular we consider both inter- and intra molecular dynamics with special reference to energy requirements and energy disposal in chemical reactions and to what goes on in between - intramole cular energy migration.

1. Lasers and Chemical Change.- 1.1 Light Amplification and Population Inversion in Chemical Processes.- 1.2 Molecular Rate Processes.- 1.3 Photoselective Chemistry.- 1.4 The Road Ahead.- 2. Disequilibrium.- 2.1 Specificity and Selectivity of Chemical Reactions.- 2.2 Surprisal Analysis.- 2.3 Molecular Reaction Dynamics.- 2.4 State-to-State Processes.- 2.5 Macroscopic Disequilibrium.- Appendices.- 3. Photons, Molecules, and Lasers.- 3.1 Interaction of Molecules with Radiation.- 3.2 Essential Physics of Lasers.- 3.3 Survey of Atomic and Molecular Spectroscopy.- 3.4 Laser Sources.- 4. Chemical Lasers.- 4.1 Survey of Chemical Lasers.- 4.2 Lasing Conditions in Chemical Lasers.- 4.3 Operati on.- 4.4 Chemical Laser Kinetics.- 4.5 Some Applications of Chemical Lasers.- 5. Laser Chemistry.- 5.1 The Laser Evolution.- 5.2 Bimolecular Reactions.- 5.3 Electronic Excitation of Polyatomic Molecules.- 5.4 Multiphoton Activation and Fragmentation.- 5.5 The "Compleat" Laser Chemist.- 5.6 From the Laboratory to Large-Scale Laser Chemistry.- 5.7 Synergism.- References.- Author Index.