MEDIUM RESOLUTION CAVITY SPECTROSCOPY FOR THE STUDY OF LARGE MOLECULES

Abstract

It is well known that as molecules become larger the spectral lines of their high-resolution rotational spectra begin to merge, first into modest blends, then into clusters of many lines, and finally into continua. In addition to impacting specificity, the usual signal processing strategies used to separate spectral information from background become ineffective. Medium Resolution Cavity Spectroscopy trades the usual excess of specificity of rotational spectroscopy for a means of obtaining spectra of large molecules with congested or semi-continua spectra. The chief scientific question to be answered is how large (according the several definitions of �large�) can a molecule be and still have structure at medium resolution. The chief technical question to be answered is how to develop strategies to approach white noise sensitivity limits. Experimental details and results, and theoretical results will be presented.