Abstract

Many chemical and physical processes that occur at solid interfaces may be better understood from the measurement of energy flow within adsorbate and substrate vibrational modes. In order for a chemical transformation to occur along a reaction coordinate, for example, specific molecular bond vibrational excitation followed by dissociation and reformation is required. With the advent of ultrashort optical pulse technology, we are now in a position to directly monitor the ultrafast kinetics of energy decay of vibrational modes in condensed-phase molecular systems. While such measurements have been conducted for gas and liquid phase systems, there have been no previous reports of measurements of energy relaxation in chemically relevant surface species. We have thus undertaken a course of research to directly investigate the vibrational relaxation dynamics of molecules adsorbed on high surface area metal oxides.

© 1985 Optical Society of America