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Atmospheric corrosion, the most common form of metal corrosion, occurs within the interfacial region between a solid, and the surrounding atmosphere. In fact three phases and two interfaces are involved: the gas, a thin liquid layer, a solid, the gas/liquid and the liquid/solid interfaces. In this thesis, the vapor/liquid and liquid/metal interfaces have been studied by the in-situ techniques vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy (VSFS), and infrared reflection/absorption spectroscopy (IRAS). The main focus has been on characterization of the corrosive organic molecules formic acid, acetic acid, and acetaldehyde, at the two interfaces. Additionally, the headgroup of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) has been examined at the air/water interface. VSFS is an inherently surface sensitive laser spectroscopy technique, which provides vibrational spectra solely of the molecules residing at the surface of for example a liquid, despite the vast excess of the same molecules in the bulk. To obtain a comprehensive molecular picture of the organic compounds at the air/liquid interface, studies have been undertaken in several spectral regions, targeting the CH, C=O, C-O, OH, and SO3 stretching vibrations. Furthermore, the surrounding water molecules have been investigated in order to study hydration phenomena. Acetaldehyde has been determined to partly form a gem-diol (CH3CH(OH)2) at the air/water interface, whereas acetic acid forms various hydrogen-bonded species, with hydrated monomers at low concentrations and centrosymmetric cyclic dimers at high concentrations. Formic acid was found to form a different complex at very high concentrations, in addition to the species observed at low concentrations. Performing experiments with different polarizations of the laser beams has enabled the determination of the orientation of the interfacial molecules. The methyl group of acetic acid was concluded to be oriented close to the surface normal throughout the concentration range, whereas the tilt angle of the CH group of formic acid was determined to be ~35°. The SDS studies revealed that the headgroup orientation is constant in a wide range of concentrations, and also in the presence of sodium chloride. IRAS has provided information regarding the composition and kinetics of the corrosion products formed upon exposure of a zinc oxide surface to the organic compounds. The importance of the water adlayer on metal surfaces has been confirmed by the faster kinetics observed at higher relative humidities. Exposure to formic acid resulted in the formation of zinc formate, whereas both acetic acid and acetaldehyde formed zinc acetate upon reaction with the zinc oxide surface. However, the kinetics were faster for acetic acid than acetaldehyde, which was explained in terms of an acetate-induced zinc dissolution process and a more complicated reaction path involved in the acetaldehyde case to form the zinc acetate surface species. Scanning electron microscopy indicated the formation of radially growing reaction products for acetic acid and filiform corrosion for acetaldehyde. / QC 20101029

Providing intense, contamination-free beams of rare isotopes to experiments is a challenging task. At isotope separator on-line facilities such as ISAC at TRIUMF, the choice of production target and ion source are key to the successful beam delivery. Due to their element-selectivity, high efficiency and versatility, resonant ionization laser ion sources (RILIS) gain increasingly in importance. The spectroscopic data available are typically incomplete in the region of excited- and autoionizing atomic states. In order to find the most efficient ionization scheme for a particular element, further spectroscopy is often required. The development of efficient laser resonant ionization schemes for yttrium and astatine is presented in this thesis. For yttrium, two ionization schemes with comparable relative intensities were found. Since for astatine, only two transitions were known, the focus was to provide data on atomic energy levels using resonance ionization spectroscopy. Altogether 41 previously unknown astatine energy levels were found.

This thesis describes an automated data acquisition system based on a personal computer that has been modified for use as a scientific instrument in an undergraduate physics laboratory. Two demonstration experiment have been designed to explain how the system functions and how it may be utilized in a laboratory setting.An experiment in optical spectroscopy will allow students to automatically scan the spectra of a light source and collect data concerning wavelength and line intensity. The computer system displays the information in graphical format and saves the data on floppy disks for further analysis.The second experiment studies the heat flow along a cylindrical copper rod. Eight thermocouples, located along the length of the rod, monitor temperature as a function of time. A known heat source is attached to one end of the rod and the other end is maintained at room temperature. Both the transient and stead-state behavior of the temperature distribution is studied. The acquired data is presented graphically and saved on floppy disk for further analysis. These two experiments will be used in the Modern Physics Laboratory course, PHYCS 262. / Department of Physics and Astronomy

Providing intense, contamination-free beams of rare isotopes to experiments is a challenging task. At isotope separator on-line facilities such as ISAC at TRIUMF, the choice of production target and ion source are key to the successful beam delivery. Due to their element-selectivity, high efficiency and versatility, resonant ionization laser ion sources (RILIS) gain increasingly in importance. The spectroscopic data available are typically incomplete in the region of excited- and autoionizing atomic states. In order to find the most efficient ionization scheme for a particular element, further spectroscopy is often required. The development of efficient laser resonant ionization schemes for yttrium and astatine is presented in this thesis. For yttrium, two ionization schemes with comparable relative intensities were found. Since for astatine, only two transitions were known, the focus was to provide data on atomic energy levels using resonance ionization spectroscopy. Altogether 41 previously unknown astatine energy levels were found.

The development and implementation of a high resolution, direct absorption, rapidscanning infrared diode laser spectrometer incorporating a supersonic jet expansion source is described. High sensitivity is achieved by directly modulating absorption signals at frequencies in excess of 50 kHz, enabling their separation from lower frequency mechanical and diode 1/f noise. This is accomplished by rapidly scanning the diode laser across a small frequency window (~0.5-1.5cm^-1) synchronously with a pulsed supersonic expansion in a time period of 1 or 2 ms. Absorptions appear as small attenuations in the overall variation of the laser mode power across the scan window. This background profile is removed by recording the laser power without gas pulsing and subtracting. Relative frequency calibration is effected by simultaneously recording the spectrum of a reference gas and the interference fringes of an etalon. Absorption signals are recorded by means of a fast 12-bit analog-to-digital converter operating at 1 MHz. This is housed within a dedicated PC microprocessor which performs spectrometer control, data coaddition, signal processing and spectrum calibration functions. The spectrometer has been used to measure the infrared spectra of two weakly bound complexes, CO-OCS and Ne-SiH₄. The infrared absorption spectrum of CO-OCS was measured in the 5μm region of the OCS ν₃ asymmetric stretch. In addition microwave spectra of CO-OCS and two isotopomers ¹³CO-OCS and CO-OC³⁴S have been recorded using a pulsed nozzle microwave Fourier transform spectrometer. The lines have been fitted to a Watson S reduction Hamiltonian yielding rotational, quartic and (for the ground states) sextic centrifugal distortion constants. A T-shaped structure is determined and this is rationalised by a simple potential model incorporating a distributed multipole analysis of the electrostatic charge distribution, distributed dispersion contribution and a cylindrical hard-core repulsion. The infrared spectrum of Ne-SiH4 was recorded in the vicinity of the SiH₄ ν₃ triply degenerate stretching vibration centred at 2189.19 cm^-1. Ne-SiH₄ is only the second atomspherical top complex to be successfully recorded and analysed. The complex exhibits an intermolecular potential with considerably smaller anisotropy than its argon analogue Ar-SiH₄. Consequently the SiH₄ unit is almost free to rotate within the complex, resulting in novel Coriolis interaction between the angular momentum of the SiH₄ unit and that of the overall complex. Individual bands are fitted to Coriolis interaction Hamiltonians, and the band centres for all the transitions of the complex are fitted to an anisotropic intermolecular potential. Finally, applications of the spectrometer to the study of air sensitive compounds and species generated by electric discharge sources are considered.

Thesis (PhD) - Swinburne University of Technology, Centre for Atom Optics and Ultrafast Spectroscopy, 2007. / Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Centre for Atom Optics and Ultrafast Spectroscopy, Swinburne University of Technology, 2007. Typescript. Bibliography: p. 122-144.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2008. / Principal faculty advisor: Barry C. Walker, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 203-215). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1997. / Bibliography: leaves 104-113.