MOLECULAR-BEAM STUDIES OF FREE-RADICAL PROCESSES - PHOTODISSOCIATION,INELASTIC AND REACTIVE COLLISIONS

In this review, the production and detection of a wide range of unstab le free-radical species under molecular beam conditions are described. The use of such molecular beam methods to study the photodissociation and inelastic and reactive scattering of free radicals in recent year s is reviewed. A selection of the many experiments on the photodissoci ation of radicals that have been performed recently using molecular be am conditions is described to illustrate the range and scope of such e xperiments. For the comparatively smaller fields of free-radical inela stic and reactive scattering studied using molecular beam techniques, a comprehensive review is presented. In all cases, the experimental re sults are interpreted and discussed with reference to recent related t heoretical calculations on the electronic structure and dynamics for t he systems. A particular aim is to illustrate how the observed feature s of the experiments are related to information on the topography of a nd the couplings between the appropriate potential energy surfaces and the associated dynamics.