Molecular Beam Optical Stark and PPMODR Spectroscopy of Pt Containing Molecules

Abstract

Ligated platinum compounds are important in many homogeneous catalytic processes yet there is very little experimental information about the Pt-ligand bond. The most detailed information about bonding comes from the analysis of gas phase spectra recorded at a resolution sufficient to resolve the fine and hyperfine structure and shifts in spectral features caused by the application of static electric and magnetic fields. The advent of the supersonic laser ablation/reaction source (1-4) has eliminated many of the problems associated with the generation molecules containing refractory elements, such as Pt. In our laboratory we use such a molecular beam source in the optical Stark and pump/probe microwave optical double resonance (PPMODR)studies. In both techniques the detected signal is single mode cw-dye laser induced fluorescence (LIF).