Vibrational and Rotational Spectroscopy of Diatomic Molecules
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Vibrational and Rotational Spectroscopy of Diatomic Molecules Spectroscopy is an important tool in the study of atoms and molecules, giving us an understanding of their quantized energy levels. These energy levels can only be solved for analytically in the case of the hydrogen atom; for more complex molecules we must use approximation methods to derive a model for the energy levels of the system. In this paper we will examine the vibration-rotation spectrum of a diatomic molecule, which can be approximated by modeling vibrations as a harmonic oscillator and rotations as a rigid rotor. We will use these models to understand the features of the vibration-rotation spectrum of HCl, allowing us to use the spectrum to learn about properties of the molecule. Keywords: Spectroscopy; Diatomic Molecules; Rotation; Vibration; Quantum Mechanics. I. INTRODUCTION Spectroscopy is the study of how matter interacts with electromagnetic radiation. Atoms and molecules inter- acting with light will sometimes emit photons at specific frequencies; these frequencies depend on the energy level separation for whatever transitions caused the photon emission. We can use this to learn about the energy levels of an atom or molecule. However, the wavefunctions describing the energy levels of atoms and molecules more complex than hydrogen FIG. 1: This is the vibration-rotation spectrum of HCl. The cannot be solved analytically. A good starting point goal of this paper is to explain the physics behind the spectrum. for analyzing and predicting energy levels is to consider This image was taken from [4]. the energy transitions between vibrational and rotational states in diatomic molecules. These transitions are small enough that the molecular orbitals of electrons don't an energy transition with a change in energy equal to hν, change [1]. where h is Planck's constant. Figure 1 shows the experimentally-obtained spectrum Since we are examining the transitions between energy of transitions between the ground and first excited vibra- eigenstates, we will need to determine what energy transi- tional states of HCl [4]. Contained in that spectrum is tions in our system are allowed. To determine the allowed valuable information allowing us to find the bond length transitions, we will calculate the Einstein coefficient for and stiffness of HCl [1]. In order to extract this infor- stimulated emission, Bab [2]. Consider a molecule with mation, however, we must first understand where the states jai and jbi with energies Ea and Eb, Ea < Eb.A features of the spectrum come from. Our goal will be photon with energy equal to Eb −Ea will, half of the time, to understand the physics behind Figure 1; with that cause the molecule to transition from state jbi down to knowledge, we will be able to calculate the bond length state jai, emitting another photon with energy Eb − Ea. and stiffness of HCl from this spectrum. We can detect this second photon and measure its fre- quency. The coefficient Bab is proportional to the probability II. SPECTROSCOPY BACKGROUND that a particular transition will occur. Einstein found that 2 A typical spectroscopy experiment will involve a source 4π 2 Bab = jhaj d jbij (1) of photons being directed through a chamber filled with 3¯h2 our molecule of interest in gaseous form. For pure rota- tional spectroscopy, where the only transitions observed where d is the dipole moment [2]. We see that if haj d jbi are transitions between different rotational states, the pho- is zero, then that transition will never occur. Thus we tons are typically in the microwave region of the electro- can determine the allowed energy transitions by identify- magnetic spectrum. Infrared light is typical for vibration- ing the set of transitions with non-zero transition dipole rotation transitions, which involve changing both the moments. vibrational and rotational energy states [1]. In the experiment described above, the energy of pho- tons that is emitted via stimulated emission from the III. SIMPLE MODELS OF VIBRATIONS AND molecule are measured. Our HCl spectrum in Figure 1 is ROTATIONS a plot of photon frequency vs. number of photons; a peak at a particular frequency ν indicates that lots of photons The vibrations and rotations of a diatomic molecule can were emitted with frequency ν, suggesting that there is be quite simply modeled using the harmonic oscillator Vibrational and Rotational Spectroscopy of Diatomic Molecules 2 and the rigid rotor, respectively, two exactly-solvable for the transition from state v to v0. Since this is a three- quantum systems. With this alone, a relatively accurate dimensional harmonic oscillator, we must consider the x, understanding of the HCl spectrum can be reached. y, and z components of d. We will calculate di where i can be replaced by x, y, and z. Using the harmonic oscillator raising and lowering operators, we find A. Vibrations Modeled as the Harmonic Oscillator 0 di;vv0 = hvj qx^i jv i s The potential felt by atoms in a diatomic molecule like ¯h = hvj q(a ^ +a ^ y) jv0i (8) HCl is not a perfect harmonic potential. Assuming the 2µω i i true potential is V (r) for some internuclear distance r, p p 0 0 0 0 we can perform a Taylor expansion of V (r) about re, the / v hvjv − 1i + v + 1 hvjv + 1i : equilibrium distance: We see from equation (8) that the dipole moment for all 0 00 2 0 V (r) = V (re)+V (re)(r−re)+V (re)(r−re) +··· (2) dimensions only is non-zero when ∆v = v − v = ±1. The energy of photons, Eγ , emitted during allowed transitions For small vibrations about equilibrium, we approximate from v + 1 to v is 0 V (re) = 0. We can also define V (re) = 0 since we only care about relative energies. For small vibrations Eγ = −(∆E) = Ev+1 − Ev =h! ¯ e: (9) (r −r 1), we can ignore terms with higher than second e Interestingly, we find that the photon energy does not order in r. Thus, we arrive at V (r) ≈ V 00(0)r2 ≡ 1 kr2. 2 depend on v at all. This tells us that we should observe From this we can imagine a simplified model of a di- emitted photons only with energy ¯h! , giving us a single atomic molecule in which the two atoms are point masses e peak in our spectrum. However, this is not what we with mass m and m connected by a spring with spring 1 2 observe in Figure 1. To understand where all the peaks constant k. From classical mechanics, we find the differ- come from, we must investigate how rotational transitions ential equation describing their motion to be add to our spectrum. d2x k 2 = − x (3) dt µ B. Rotations Modeled as the Rigid Rotor where x is the distance between the two spheres and We approximate the rotations of diatomic molecules by m m µ = 1 2 (4) considering two point masses kept a fixed distance apart, m1 + m2 r. This model is called the rigid rotor. From classical physics, we know the energy of rotation is E = J 2=(2I) is the reduced mass of the system [1]. where J is the angular momentum and I is the moment This suggests that, if we model the molecule vibra- of inertia. In our model, the two rotating point masses tions as a harmonic oscillator, we should arrive at the with reduced mass µ will have I = µr2. Hamiltonian We adapt these equations to arrive at a Hamiltonian 2 1=2 for the quantum mechanical rigid rotor, H^ = J^ =(2I). p^2 1 k H^ = + µ !2x^2;! = (5) The time independent Schr¨odingerequation is 2µ 2 e e µ J^2 Our energy eigenstates will therefore have energy j i = E j i (10) 2I 1 Ev = ¯h!e(v + 2 ); v = 0; 1; 2::: (6) We see that the solutions for j i will be spherical harmon- ics, which are eigenstates of J^2. Thus, the wavefunction where we define v as the quantum vibrational number. for j i is Note that !e is dependent on the masses of the atoms, not 1 iMφ simply the masses of their bare nuclei; in these vibrational JM = YJM = p ΘJM (θ)e (11) models, the electrons are considered close to the nuclei 2π such that they vibrate along with the entire atom [3]. M where ΘJM (θ) = PJ (cos θ) are Legendre polynomials. It We see that the vibrational energy levels are equally is easy to find the energy levels, which we write as spaced, each one ¯h!e above the previous level. In order to determine the energy of photons emitted during energy J^2 ¯h2J(J + 1) j i = j i ≡ BJ(J + 1) j i transitions, we must first determine the allowed transi- 2I JM 2I JM JM tions. From equation (1), we know that a non-zero change (12) in dipole moment corresponds to an allowed transition. 2 We write where B = ¯h =(2I) has units of energy. The quantum numbers J = 0; 1; 2::: and M = −J; :::; +J indicate that 0 2 dvv0 = hvj d jv i (7) j JM i is an eigenstate of both J^ and J^z. Vibrational and Rotational Spectroscopy of Diatomic Molecules 3 As with vibrational transitions, we can derive the al- (A) (B) lowed rotational transitions (i.e. the allowed values for ∆M and ∆J) by calculating the transition dipole moment: J=3 J=0→1 J=1→2 J=2→3 dJM;J 0M 0 = h J;M j d j J 0;M 0 i : (13) J=2 We can rewrite d in spherical coordinates as 2B J=1 d = d0(sin θ cos φ ex + sin θ sin φ ey + cos θ ez): (14) J=0 Energy of detected photons We use equations (11), (13), and (14) to find the transition dipole moment: FIG.