Low Temperature Spectroscopy

Written by a distinguished plasma scientist and experienced author, this up-to-date work comprehensively covers current methods and new developments and techniques, including non-equilibrium atomic and molecular plasma states, as well as such new applications as gas lasers. Containing numerous appendices with reference data indispensable for plasma spectroscopy, such as statistical weights and partition sums and diatomic molecules. For plasmaphysicists, spectroscopists, materials scientists and physical chemists. Appendix H is only available online.

Molecular spectroscopy has achieved rapid and significant progress in recent years, the low temperature techniques in particular having proved very useful for the study of reactive species, phase transitions, molecular clusters and crystals, superconductors and semiconductors, biochemical systems, astrophysical problems, etc. The widening range of applications has been accompanied by significant improvements in experimental methods, and low temperature molecular spectroscopy has been revealed as the best technique, in many cases, to establish the connection between experiment and theoretical calculations. This, in turn, has led to a rapidly increasing ability to predict molecular spectroscopic properties. The combination of an advanced tutorial standpoint with an emphasis on recent advances and new perspectives in both experimental and theoretical molecular spectroscopy contained in this book offers the reader insight into a wide range of techniques, particular emphasis being given to supersonic jet and matrix isolation techniques, spectroscopy in cryogenic solutions (including liquid noble gases), and in both crystalline and amorphous states. Suitable quantum chemical methods are also considered, as are empirically based force field methods for calculating spectra of large molecular systems. The wide range of topics covered includes: molecular dynamics and reactivity, time-resolved and high-resolution spectroscopy, conformational analysis, hydrogen bonding and solvent effects, structure and dynamics of weakly bound complexes, transition metal and organic photochemistry, spectroscopy of excited states, ab initio prediction of molecular spectra, and biochemical and astrophysical applications.

This is a comprehensive textbook designed for graduate and advanced undergraduate students. Both authors rely on more than 20 years of teaching experience in renowned Physics Engineering courses to write this book addressing the students’ needs. Kinetics and Spectroscopy of Low Temperature Plasmas derives in a full self-consistent way the electron kinetic theory used to describe low temperature plasmas created in the laboratory with an electrical discharge, and presents the main optical spectroscopic diagnostics used to characterize such plasmas. The chapters with the theoretical contents make use of a deductive approach in which the electron kinetic theory applied to plasmas with basis on the electron Boltzmann equation is derived from the basic concepts of Statistical and Plasma Physics. On the other hand, the main optical spectroscopy diagnostics used to characterize experimentally such plasmas are presented and justified from the point of view of the Atomic and Molecular Physics. Low temperature plasmas (LTP) are partially ionized gases with a broad use in many technological applications such as microelectronics, light sources, lasers, biology and medicine. LTPs lead to the production of atomic and molecular excited states, chemically reactive radicals, and activated surface sites, which are in the origin, among others, of the deposition of thin films, advanced nanotechnology products, solar cells, highly efficient combustion motors, and treatment of cancer cells.

This book brings together, for the first time, the results of recent research in areas ranging from the chemistry of cold interstellar clouds (10-20 K), through laboratory studies of the spectroscopy and kinetics of ions, radicals and molecules, to studies of molecules in liquid helium droplets, to attempts to create molecular (as distinct from atomic) Bose-Einstein condensates.

This textbook contains information essential for successful experiments at low temperatures. The first chapters describe the low-temperature properties of liquids and solid matter, including liquid helium. Most of the book is devoted to refrigeration techniques and the physics on which they rely, the definition of temperature, thermometry, and a variety of design and construction techniques. The lively and practical style make it easy to read and particularly useful to anyone beginning research in low-temperature physics. Low-temperature scientists will find it of great value due to its extensive compilation of materials data and relevant new results.

This volume contains a series of six lecture courses presented by some of the leading exponents in the field of low-temperature physics. Special emphasis is given to theoretical and experimental advances in our understanding of 3He, heavy fermion systems and high-Tc superconductivity. The book provide an ideal basis for graduate courses in low-temperature physics.