Chemical Education Today edited by
Book & Media Reviews
Jeffrey Kovac University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN 37996-1600
Modern Spectroscopy, 4th Edition by J. Michael Hollas John Wiley & Sons: Chichester, England, 2004. 452 pp. ISBN 0470844167 (paperback). $45; ISBN 0470844159 (hardbound) $145. [Also available digitally as an e-book using Adobe Reader 6.X: John Wiley & Sons, 2004. MacOS 10.2 or higher, Windows, Palm OS devices (but not Pocket PC or Symbian devices); Adobe Reader. ISBN B0001WDFIQ. $45 for each version] reviewed by Edward W. Castner, Jr.
I find that there are two kinds of atomic and molecular spectroscopy textbooks: those that are based on a detailed theoretical treatment of the subject and those that focus directly on experimental methods with applications of theory to describe the observed spectra. Both have a place in the senior undergraduate and first-year graduate courses. The fourth edition of Molecular Spectroscopy by J. Michael Hollas belongs to the second category. Hollas’ overall approach to spectroscopy is to incorporate quantum mechanical results as needed while not including detailed derivations. In the first chapter, brief reviews of several important models are given, including the Schrödinger representation of the hydrogen atom, the rigid rotor, the harmonic oscillator, and the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. In later chapters, the mathematical results are applied without in-depth derivations. This fourth edition will be appropriate for certain first courses in spectroscopy if a strong foundation in the quantum theory has been developed in other courses. Two valuable features for both students and instructors are a strong final chapter on Lasers and Laser Spectroscopy, and a set of 17 worked examples dispersed throughout the book. Compromises must be made to create a text on modern spectroscopy of any reasonable length. To the credit of the author, he has retained several subjects that are often omitted. For example, the fourth chapter is a brief introduction to molecular group theory, at the level of F. A. Cotton’s classic Chemical Applications of Group Theory (1). Chapter 3 includes some details about the components of modern spectrometers (including dispersive elements) and a range of detectors (photomultipliers, photodiodes, photodiode arrays, and charge-coupled device imagers). This book will appeal to those interested in surface and solid-state spectroscopy as it is one of the few modern texts that discuses methods such as UV and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Auger, X-ray fluorescence, and EXAFS. Brief mention is made of the importance of synchrotron radiation for several of these methods. Inclusion of the discussion of these methods is a strength, which at the same time illustrates how the treatment of disordered systems (with their concomitantly broad linewidths) is largely ignored. The timewww.JCE.DivCHED.org
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correlation function approach to spectroscopy, treated in the recent text by J. McHale (2), is an alternative method frequently used for such condensed-phase spectroscopy problems. The ninth chapter, Lasers and Laser Spectroscopy, includes sections on semiconductor and Ti:sapphire lasers, and a number of the more exotic spectroscopic methods. Some of these include cavity ringdown spectroscopy, LIDAR, several forms of Raman spectroscopy including hyper-Raman and coherent anti-Stokes (CARS), supersonic jet spectroscopy, multi-photon and nonlinear spectroscopy, and femtosecond spectroscopy. While it is laudable to include recent advances in research methodology in a textbook, several of these “new” additions were widely known in the research community in 1987 at the time of the first edition. Certain parts of the book that persist from the first edition should have been updated. For example, the text in Chapter 3 describes relatively modern detectors such as charge-coupled devices, but nearby tables refer to photographic plates. The introductory section on Units, Dimensions, and Conventions cites the “illogicality” of mixing frequency and wavenumber units for rotational constants. However, he describes the convention of using the symbol A for a rotational constant in frequency units and as an alternative notation for the constant in wavenumber units, but then proceeds to justify mixing the two notations, claiming that differentiation of these two is rarely done. While this might have been true in 1987, it is not true today. Two of the most widely used undergraduate physical chemistry texts, those by McQuarrie and Simon (3) and by Atkins and DePaula (4), have used this dual notation for several years. The author’s commentary on the proper labeling of graph axes illustrates that there is more than one convention in use. He recommends that one use notation such as /GHz but rejects the parenthetical form (GHz). The author’s convention contradicts the usage specified by the style guides of both the American Physical Society (5) and the American Chemical Society (6). Lastly, some of the values for physical constants quoted in the text are not the latest available from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Given that these are continually becoming ever more precise, it would be appropriate to reference the NIST Web site (7). As with all books, this one has both strengths and weaknesses. I recommend that university libraries obtain a copy of Modern Spectroscopy fourth edition and can also recommend it for instructors who desire to include either the modern methods (Chapter 9) or the surface spectroscopy methods (Chapter 8). The instructor who wishes to give a course with a solid theoretical grounding in semi-classical and quantum aspects of spectroscopy will want to look elsewhere; the 1999 book by McHale (2) would be of interest. Literature Cited 1. Cotton, F. A. Chemical Applications of Group Theory, 3rd ed.; Wiley-Interscience: New York, 1990.
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Chemical Education Today
Book & Media Reviews 2. McHale, Jeanne L. Molecular Spectroscopy; Prentice-Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1999. 3. McQuarrie, Donald A.; Simon, John D. Physical Chemistry: A Molecular Approach; University Science Books: Sausalito, CA, 1997. 4. Atkins, Peter W.; DePaula, Julio. Physical Chemistry, 7th ed.; W. H. Freeman: New York, 2002. 5. AIP Style Manual, 4th ed. Prepared under the Direction of the AIP Publication Board; American Institute of Physics: New York, 1990.
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6. Dodd, Janet S., Ed. The ACS Style Guide: A Manual for Authors and Editors, 2nd ed.; The American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1997. 7. The NIST Web site is at http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Constants/ (accessed Oct 2004).
Edward W. Castner, Jr. is in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 610 Taylor Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8087;
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