MOLECULAR UNIVERSE

Expertise in Research and Complementarity
The LPPM team is lead by Dr M. Vervloet (MV), assisted by Dr D. Bailly (DB) and by his PhD student Olivier Pirali (OP). MV has wide experience in emission and absorption gas phase Fourier transform Spectroscopy (FTS) and in the production of neutral or ionised radicals. MV got his PhD in Reims in 1978 where he was an assistant professor. In 1980 he was appointed in the group of Spectroscopy of the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (Ottawa) as a permanent member of the staff for 10 years. In 1990 he went back in France and was appointed Directeur de Recherche au CNRS, at the Laboratoire de Photophysique Moléculaire (LPPM) at Orsay. He also worked in the field of photoionisation spectroscopy in the LURE laboratory, which is the Synchrotron Radiation Facility of Orsay, where he was responsible for the VUV beam line (SA63) and was the coordinator of the experimental project SAPHIRS (Spectroscopie d'Agrégats PhotoIonisés par Rayonnement Synchrotron). DB has developed her expertise in the analysis of infrared emission produced by highly excited triatomic molecules and in the realisation of emission sources. Recently, OP and MV have extended their studies to the Far InfraRed (FIR) spectral range (50-500 cm) by means of a high resolution Fourier transform spectrometer. They are also strongly involved in the very promising use of the bright FIR synchrotron radiation for molecular absorption measurements. The campus of Orsay is composed of a large number of research laboratories covering a wide range of scientific disciplines. It offers strong opportunities for using a broad diversity of scientific tools and favors collaborations between researchers working in different fields. The team is very active in collaborative research; particularly with the Lille group of Lille on spectroscopy in the terahertz regiusing sub-millimeter laser spectroscopy technique which is a complementary technique to the FIR FTS technique employed in Orsay. The team also collaborates with the group of C. Joblin (Toulouse), especially on PAHs studies.
Expertise in Training and Knowledge Transfer
The seconded postdoctoral fellow (PDF) will fully participate in the experimental work and in the analysis of the resulting data. In this way, he would learn or improve his knowledge about techniques. He would attend (and contribute to) research seminars and to training programmes offered by the CNRS and the Université Paris-Sud. He also would attend and present work at national and international meetings.

Involvement of Key Scientific Staff.

Significant References
1. Improved infrared and visible emission spectra of H3 and D3 molecules. M. Vervloet and J. K. G. Watson, J. Molec. Spectrosc., 217, 255-277 (2003).
2. Gas-phase molecular spectroscopy. P. Crozet, A. J. Ross and M. Vervloet, Annu. Rep. Prog. Chem., Sect. C, 98, 33-86 (2002).