ISMO

Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d'Orsay


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CNRS UPS




Friday 29 March


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Tuesday 26 March


Home > Research Teams > Molecular systems, Astrophysics and Environment

Molecular systems, Astrophysics and Environment

List of the group members

Overview of the group research activities:
Our research group focuses on fundamental processes in chemical physics, at the molecular scale. We are interested in the understanding of the spectral features and the energetic processing of isolated molecular systems from the injection of energy to the relaxation through all processes in competition: radiative cooling, isomerization, ionization and fragmentation, as well as the intra- and inter-molecular energy flow and charge transfers following the excitation. Our experimental tools are lasers, synchrotron radiation, ion beams in order to cover a broad range of excitation energies from rotational to highly excited electronic states. Several experimental set-ups are developed and used to access the spectroscopy or the dynamics of the systems. Theoretical methods dealing with statistical thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, and vibrational dynamics are developed and used in order to model and understand the processes at work.

We are also strongly involved at interfaces of our fundamental topics. Most of the researches are driven by fundamental questions in molecular sciences raised by astrophysical observations from small bodies of our solar system to molecular clouds in the interstellar medium. The complexity of the matter at the molecular scale observed in the interstellar medium as well as in our solar system is also an issue. The molecular systems are mostly based on carbon chemistry, including heteroatoms such as hydrogen and nitrogen, and range from small molecules up to nanograins of few tens of nanometers. Our group also undertakes researches in relation with societal issues. For instance, we investigate the mechanisms at work after excitation by light if artificial photosystems, which mimic the natural photosynthesis, to contribute to the effort toward the production of solar fuels as a source of renewable energy.