Abstract
An ideal approach to visualizing chemical and biological processes would come from snapshots of atomic positions of participating molecules throughout the course of chemical reactions or conformational changes. Although unlikely to be obtained from a single experimental technique, a combination of methods may well achieve this goal. Exciting new experiments have demonstrated that the idea of using 2D IR spectroscopy to obtain molecular structures with sufficient time resolution to resolve barrier crossing processes, chemical reactions and conformational dynamics, now appears to have exceptional promise. The advantage [1] of the technique is its intrinsically high time resolution, which is on the order of picoseconds. Thus 2D IR spectroscopy naturally accesses the time scales that are hard to reach by 2D NMR and X-ray diffraction methods in solutions. Exciting biological applications include structural dynamics of nucleotides, peptides [2], and perhaps small proteins. Other application in photochemistry, polymer dynamics, and liquids will be possible.
© 2002 Optical Society of America
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