Our group has developed a range of powerful instruments to investigate intermolecular interactions. Several of them are quite unique and will not be found in any other laboratory in the world, although they typically function on fairly elementary principles. A (typically pulsed) supersonic jet expansion is crossed by infrared or visible radiation and the absorption or inelastic scattering of the light is detected.
We invent acronyms for some of our experiments. These acronyms have to fulfill several requirements: They should be built from letters contained in an expression which describes the working principle. They should always sound like some kind of internationally known food, which everybody knows, because good food is always fun, like good research. There should be some kind of analogy between the food the acronyms describe and some aspect of the experiment. Sometimes there are hidden meanings as well, which we will not disclose.
(rapid acquisition - giant outlet; two key features of the pulsed nozzles
which are synchronized with a rapid scan interferometer)
(like in a ragout, the ragout-jet provides a mix of differently-shaped and
sized chunks of matter in a fluid environment)
(fine - but lengthy; describing the narrow (0.2 mm) but extremely long
(600 mm) slit nozzle shape)
(the expansion zone is filet-shaped)
(poppet-controlled resistively heated nozzle; describing the way the compound
is enclosed between check-valves to avoid leakage during off-times)
(liquid compounds are typically soaked on molecular sieve pellets and heated
like popcorn in this experiment)
(multiple equidistant slit; describing the arrangement of short parallel
slit nozzles which allows for the mixing of reactive gases)
(like in a Swiss muesli, the goal is to mix several ingredients together
shortly before consumption)
(classical unrestricted Raman spectroscopy; describing a powerful and
universal detection principle)
(C. V. Raman
was Indian, and curry is an Indian ragout or spice mixture)
Revised 2010-11-29