Kalte Moleküle und schmalbandige Laser

Abstract

The molecular beam technique is a beautiful tool to explore in great detail physical and chemical processes in molecules and in molecular systems. Over the last 15 years this method has provided new and fundamental data to the problem of how a chemical reaction is proceeding on a microscopic level.
With the introduction of pulsed and tunable narrow-band lasers, the pulsed molecular beam (supersonic jet) became the appropriate beam source, considerably enlarging the scope of this technique. The present article describes - from the chemist’s point of view - the characteristics of different types of molecular beams and their applications to chemical problems.