Femtochemistry: Atomic‐Scale Dynamics of the Chemical Bond Using Ultrafast Lasers (Nobel Lecture)

Abstract

Prologue Dynamics and Arrow of Time Origins—From Kinetics To Dynamics The Arrhenius Seminal Contribution The London, Eyring, and Polanyi Contributions The Transition State and its Definition The Transition State and its Spectroscopy The Arrow of Time Femtochemistry: Development of the Field The Early Years of Coherence New Techniques for Molecules The Optical Analogue of NMR Spectroscopy: Controlling the Phase The Marriage with Molecular Beams The Anthracene Discovery: A Paradigm Shift The Successful 036 Laboratory Changing a Dogma: Development of RCS The Transition to the Sub-Picosecond Regime A New Beam Machine: Pump-Probe Mass Spectrometry The First Experiment on ICN: Sub-picosecond Resolution The Femtosecond Dream The Classic Femtosecond Discovery in ICN The NaI Discovery: A Paradigm for the Field The Saddle-Point Transition State The Uncertainty Principle Paradox Bimolecular Bond Making and Bond Breaking: Bernstein\9s Passion Ultrafast Electron Diffraction Clusters, Dense Fluids and Liquids, and New Generations of FEMTOLANDS Theoretical Femtochemistry Experimental Femtochemistry Femtocopia—Examples from Caltech Elementary Reactions and Transition States Organic Chemistry Electron and Proton Transfer Inorganic and Atmospheric Chemistry The Mesoscopic Phase: Clusters and Nanostructures The Condensed Phase: Dense Fluids, Liquids, and Polymers Opportunities for the Future Transient Structures from Ultrafast Electron Diffraction Reaction Control Biological Dynamics Impact and Concepts—A Retrospective Time Resolution—Reaching the Transition-State Limit Atomic-Scale Resolution Generality of the Approach Some Concepts Resonance (Nonequilibrium Dynamics) Coherence (Single-Molecule-Type Dynamics) Transition Structures (Landscape Dynamics) Reduced Space (Directed Dynamics) Epilogue Appendix A Primer for Femtoscopy, Coherence and Atoms in Motion Pump–Probe Femtoscopy Coherence and Atomic Motion

Keywords

Affiliated Institutions

• California Institute of Technology US

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