Information • Textbooks • Media • Resources Introduction to Franck–Condon Factors: FranckCondonBackground.mcd Theresa Julia Zielinski. Department of Chemistry, Medical Technology, and Physics, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ 07764-1898 George M. Shalhoub. Department of Chemistry, La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA 19141
The goal of this document is to provide students with an introduction to Franck–Condon Factors and the relationship of these factors to vibronic spectroscopy. The document contains a very brief introduction to Franck–Condon factors through a sequence of guided inquiry exercises. Specifically, students are asked to use potential energy diagrams for a diatomic molecule to examine a transition in the diatomic molecule from a ground electronic state to an excited electronic state including consideration of the vibrational levels of each state. The overlap of vibrational wave functions is used to introduce Franck–Condon factors. All of the exercises in this document are done with pencil and paper as preparation for more detailed work to be done in the companion computational document “The Franck– Condon Factors” (below).
Simulation of a UV–vis spectrum from FranckCondonComputation.mcd.
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 75 No. 9 September 1998 • Journal of Chemical Education
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