Femtochemistry: Ultrafast Dynamics of the Chemical Bond, Vol. 2 (World scientific Series in 20th Century Chemistry

This is the second of two volumes which together contribute to a field central to the understanding of the dynamics of the chemical bond. This century has witnessed great strides in time and space resolutions, down to the atomic scale, providing chemists, biologists and physicists with unprecedented opportunities for seeing microscopic structures and dynamics. Femtochemistry is concerned with the time resolution of the most elementary motions of atoms during chemical change - bond breaking and bond making - on the femtosecond (10-15 second) time scale. These two volumes cover the general concepts, techniques and applications of femtochemistry. They begin with a commentary and a historical chronology of the milestones. Professor Zewail then goes on to present a broad perspective of the current state of knowledge in femtochemistry by researchers around the world and discusses possible new directions. Volume Two covers reaction rates, the concepts of elementary intramolecular vibrational-energy redistribution (IVR) and the pheneomena of rotational coherence which has become a powerful tool for the determination of molecular structure via time resolution. It ends with an extensive list of references, according to topics, based on work by Professor Zewail and his group at Caltech.