-
-
Courses
Find courses by:
Collections
Cross-Disciplinary Topic Lists
Translated Courses
-
About
-
Donate
-
Featured Sites
For a rigid rotor, the symmetric top spectrum corresponds to that which would be predicted from the classical mechanics of the rotation of a symmetric spinning top. (Photograph courtesy of Flickr user Jenny Spadafora.)
Prof. Robert Field
5.80
Fall 2008
Graduate
The goal of this course is to illustrate the spectroscopy of small molecules in the gas phase: quantum mechanical effective Hamiltonian models for rotational, vibrational, and electronic structure; transition selection rules and relative intensities; diagnostic patterns and experimental methods for the assignment of non-textbook spectra; breakdown of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation (spectroscopic perturbations); the stationary phase approximation; nondegenerate and quasidegenerate perturbation theory (van Vleck transformation); qualitative molecular orbital theory (Walsh diagrams); the notation of atomic and molecular spectroscopy.
MIT OpenCourseWare makes the materials used in the teaching of almost all of MIT's subjects available on the Web, free of charge. With more than 2,000 courses available, OCW is delivering on the promise of open sharing of knowledge.
© 2001–2012
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Your use of the MIT OpenCourseWare site and materials is subject to our Creative Commons License and other terms of use.
