Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/S05519/01
Title:	A NOVEL APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF INELASTIC COLLISION DYNAMICS
Principal Investigator:	McKendrick, Professor KG
Other Investigators:	Costen, Professor ML
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Sch of Engineering and Physical Science
Organisation:	Heriot-Watt University
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	21 April 2003	Ends:	20 September 2006	Value (£):	182,690
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Chemical Structure Scattering & Spectroscopy
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Chemicals Electronics No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
We plan to use a novel combination of leading-edge experimental techniques to interrogate the products of inelastic collision processes in a new way. We will perform the first measurements of state-to-state differential cross-sections and angular momentum polarisation properties of electronically inelastic collisions, targeted on CN as a prototypical example. These results provide the most detailed information on the 'chemical shape' of a process, and are an area of great interest in chemical dynamics. They will test current competing models of electronic energy transfer and shed new light on this practically important but poorly understood topic. The results will be of direct practical benefit in laser-based remote sensing of flames and plasmas. More specifically, we will combine 'photo-loc', a laser-based method developed for the study of reactive scattering, with Frequency Modulated Absorption Spectroscopy, a recently developed high-resolution spectroscopic technique applied previously to photodissociation dynamics. A pulsed polarised laser will generate CN(X). The nascent CN(X) radicals will be excited to a specific CN(A) rotational and vibrational level using a pulsed dye laser. This will form excited CN(A) with a well-determined, near monoenergetic velocity distribution and well-defined rotational angular momentum distribution. A commercial tuneable diode laser system will then be used to probe the A and X state products of both RET and EET inelastic energy transfer by Doppler-resolved FM transient absorption, providing the required information on polarisation specific angular scattering distributions.
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Organisation Website:	http://www.hw.ac.uk