Microwave spectra of molecules involve transitions between rotational energy levels. Recent advances in microwave technology and fast electronics have enabled broadband versions of microwave spectroscopy. These rely on high power amplifiers that enable sufficient energy to be delivered to the sample to create measurable coherences via free induction decay. Armed with these tools, it is also possible to explore non-linear effects that can arise in very simple experiments involving resonant excitation of rotational transitions at high power where the states involved undergo tens to hundreds of Rabi cycles during the high-powered RF pulse. This talk will describe experiments that uncover and then seek to understand the physics behind the off-resonant coherences that are thereby produced.

Professor Zwier graduated from Calvin College (1977) with a B.S. in Chemistry and earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from the University of Colorado-Boulder (1981) under thesis advisors Professor Stephen R. Leone and Professor G. Barney Ellison. He carried out postdoctoral research at The University of Chicago (1981 – 1983) before joining the faculty at Calvin College, where he was Assistant and Associate Professor of Chemistry (1983 – 1988). He then joined the faculty at Purdue University, where he served as Assistant Professor of Chemistry (1988 – 1993), Associate Professor of Chemistry (1993 – 1997), and Professor of Chemistry (1997-2006). He served as Department Head in Chemistry from 2004-2008. In 2007 he was named the M.G. Mellon Distinguished Professor of Chemistry.

This work was carried out in collaboration with Francis Robicheaux.

Department of Physics Atomic, Molecular, Optical Seminars

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Timothy S. Zwier (2018), "Coherence Transfer in Manifolds of Molecular Rotational Levels: Strong Field Effects in the Microwave Region," https://nanohub.org/resources/28969.

  BibTex | EndNote