| Research Interests |
Physical Chemistry, Spectroscopy and Computational Chemistry
My research is focused on studying the chemical dynamics of small molecules and radicals, experimentally and theoretically. These molecules play an important role in the mechanisms of many chemical reactions, particularly those relevant to high temperature combustion chemistry and atmospheric chemistry, as well as low temperature chemistry of interstellar media. To study these reactive molecules, I combine laser spectroscopic tools and computational chemistry methods. Some of the experimental work I have carried out includes the cavity ring-down spectroscopy of some small hydrocarbon radicals. The computational tools were used in order to understand the dynamical information, which is difficult to deduce from the spectra without knowing the potential energy surfaces. The difficulties are encountered whenever two Born-Oppenheimer surfaces approach, cross, or touch each other. Regions, where surfaces touch each other or are very close, are called conical intersections, which play a very important role in photochemistry. Transitions from one potential energy surface to another are a field with growing interest, because they lead to so many fundamental processes, such as: internal conversion, photo-induced reactions, charge-transfer, isomerization, and intersystem crossing.
|
Milena Shahu