Molecular Beams in Physics and Chemistry

This Open Access book gives a comprehensive account of both the history and current achievements of molecular beam research.In 1919, Otto Stern launched the revolutionary molecular beam technique. This technique made it possible to send atoms and molecules with well-defined momentum through vacuum and to measure with high accuracy the deflections they underwent when acted upon by transversal forces. These measurements revealed unforeseen quantum properties of nuclei, atoms, and molecules that became the basis for our current understanding of quantum matter. This volume shows that many key areas of modern physics and chemistry owe their beginnings to the seminal molecular beam work of Otto Stern and his school.Written by internationally recognized experts, the contributions in this volume will help experienced researchers and incoming graduate students alike to keep abreast of current developments in molecular beam research as well as to appreciate the history and evolution of this powerful method and the knowledge it reveals.

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An homage to Otto Stern (Dudley Herschbach).- My uncle Otto Stern (Alan Templeton).- Otto Stern¿s trajectory (Tilman Sauer).- From theory to experiment (and back to theory)? On Otto Stern, Max Born and other physicists in the 1920s (Arne Schirrmacher).- Otto Sackur, Otto Stern, and the Beginning of the Quantum Theory of Gases (Massimiliano Badino).- From Stern¿s beam experiments to modern biomolecular NMR spectroscopy (Christian Griesinger).- Quantum or classical perception: The Imaging Theorem and the Ensemble Picture (John Briggs).- Reduction of the atomic wave function in the Stern-­Gerlach magnetic field (Michael Devereux).- Precision experiments for the revised SI -­ and the future of time (Joachim Ullrich).- Precision Physics in Penning Traps Using the Continuous Stern-­Gerlach-­Effect (Klaus Blaum).- Frankfurt Physicists (Michael Eckert).- Our Patrimony from Otto Stern and My Memories of Otto Frisch (Dan Kleppner).- Ultracold Chemical reactions with molecules in slow motion (Kang-Kuen Ni).- Choreographing Quantum Spin Dynamics with Light (Monika Schleier-Smith).- Stern¿s relation to Gerlach (Horst Schmidt-­Böcking).- Manipulation and control of molecular beams (Gerard Meijer).- Quantum effects in cold and controlled molecular dynamics (Christiane Koch).- Otto Stern and Wave-­Particle Duality (Peter Toennies).- Macromolecular Matter Wave Interferometry and Talbot-­Lau Deflectometry (Markus Arndt).- Rotating rotationless: nonadiabatic alignment of the helium dimer and trimer (Maksim Kunitski).- Grating Diffraction of Molecular Beams: Present Day Implementations of Otto Stern¿s Concept (Wieland Schöllkopf).- Interaction effects in ultra cold atom systems (Dörte Blume).- Laser cooling and magneto-­optical trapping of molecules (Mike Tarbutt).- Microdroplet Chemistry (Dick Zare).- TBA (Manfred Faubel).- From Liquid Rays to Gas Rays: The Non-­Maxwellian Evaporation of Helium from Water Microjets (Gil Nathanson).- Laser-­induced rotation and alignment of molecules in helium nanodroplets (Henrik Stapelfeldt).- Far-from-equilibrium dynamics of molecules in helium nanodroplets (Mikhail Lemeshko).