Impact of Laser Spectroscopy on Chemistry

Abstract

It is not true that laser techniques affect all practitioners of chemistry, just most! To gauge some idea of how widespread laser use is in chemistry I turned to my own faculty and conducted a poll. I found that 11 of the 19 active members of the Stanford University Chemistry Department use lasers in their daily research — all physical chemists except one theorist, two of the four inorganic chemists, two of the six organic chemists, and one of the two biochemists. I believe this situation is fairly typical across the U.S. Several conclusions follow: (1) the use of lasers confers, alas, no great distinction among research chemists; and (2) lasers have become an integral part of modern chemistry finding expression in a diverse set of activities but with little application to the synthesis of chemical compounds.