Laser spectroscopy and dynamics of transient species formed in pyrolysis reactions

This research concerns the study of the spectroscopy and excited state dynamics of a number of transient molecules containing either sulfur or oxygen. The identification and study of sulfur species which are analogs of important oxygen-containing combustion intermediates is important to our understanding of reactive intermediates. The oxygen-containing species chosen for study are new systems whose electronic spectra have not previously been identified. The major experimental technique used in this work was pyrolysis jet spectroscopy. Since many of the species have not been previously studied by laser techniques, much effort was devoted to determining methods for producing and observing them. We have been very successful in a number of cases and have developed some further experimental techniques