Analysis and Control of Isomerization Processes

• Applicant: Dr. Cosmin Lupulescu
• Subject Area: Physical Chemistry of Molecules, Liquids and Interfaces, Biophysical Chemistry
• Term: from 2005 to 2008
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 15314596

The goal of this project is to study and control the isomerization processes of isolated molecules via vibrationally and electronically excited states. The spectroscopic tool is the permanent or induced electric dipole of the molecule, which is a direct probe of its conformation in the ground state. During the two-year research fellowship, I will concentrate on the study of the temperature-dependent isomerization of molecules ranging from small model systems to biomolecules. This will allow me to gain experience with the deflection technique employed by the research group of Prof. Dr. Michel Broyer and Prof. Dr. Philippe Dugourd at Universite Claude Bernard - Lyon I. Afterwards I intend to combine this technique with coherent control experiments at the Freie Universität Berlin possibly within the framework of the Emmy Noether-program. The future experiments will focus on using the electric dipole susceptibility of isolated molecules in order to resolve and identify different molecular geometries coherently controlled through laser excitation.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: France
• Hosts: Professor Michael Broyer; Dr. Philippe Dugourd; Professor Bertrand Girard