Abstract

The exploration of molecular electronic properties and dynamics of excited states lying in the VUV has benefited enormously from the development of several novel methods for laser spectroscopy in the VUV. These include tunable VUV laser sources based on nonlinear sum and difference frequency mixing, nonlinear χ⁽³⁾ spectroscopy, and multilaser photoionization and photodissociation spectroscopy in supersonic beams. Examples of the applications of these methods are presented and include studies of the electronic structure and dynamics of photodissociation in HCN and DCN, nonlinear spectroscopy in small molecules, and photoionization spectroscopy of ultracold organic molecules and their van der Waals complexes in a supersonic beam.

© 1985 Optical Society of America