The effect of alkylation on the micro-solvation of ethers revealed by highly localized water librational motion.

The specific far-infrared spectral signatures associated with highly localized large-amplitude out-of-plane librational motion of water molecules have recently been demonstrated to provide sensitive spectroscopic probes for the micro-solvation of organic molecules [Mihrin et al., Phys. Chem.

Femtochemistry of bimolecular reactions from weakly bound complexes: computational study of the H + H'OD → H'OH + D or HOD + H' exchange reactions.

A full-dimensional wavepacket propagation describing the bimolecular exchange reactions H + H'OD → H'OH + D or HOD + H' initiated by photolysis of HCl in the hydrogen-bound complex (HCl)⋯(HOD) is reported. The dynamics of this reaction is carried out with the MCTDH method on an potential energy surface (PES) of HO and the initial state is derived from the ground state wavefunction of the complex obtained by relaxation on its own electronic ground state PES. The description of the system makes use of polyspherical coordinates parametrizing a set of Radau and Jacobi vectors.

Grazing-angle reflectivity setup for the low-temperature infrared spectroscopy of two-dimensional systems.

A new optical setup is described that allows the reflectivity at grazing incidence to be measured, including ultrathin films and two-dimensional electron systems (2DES) down to liquid-helium temperatures, by exploiting the Berreman effect and the high brilliance of infrared synchrotron radiation. This apparatus is well adapted to detect the absorption of a 2DES of nanometric thickness, namely that which forms spontaneously at the interface between a thin film of LaAlO and its SrTiO substrate, and to determine its Drude parameters.

High-Resolution Infrared Synchrotron Investigation of (HCN) and a Semi-Experimental Determination of the Dissociation Energy D.

The high-resolution infrared absorption spectrum of the donor bending fundamental band ν of the homodimer (HCN) has been collected by long-path static gas-phase Fourier transform spectroscopy at 207 K employing the highly brilliant 2.75 GeV electron storage ring source at Synchrotron SOLEIL. The rovibrational structure of the ν transition has the typical appearance of a perpendicular type band associated with a Σ-Π transition for a linear polyatomic molecule.

Male long-distance migrant turned sedentary; The West European pond bat (Myotis dasycneme) alters their migration and hibernation behaviour.

During autumn in the temperate zone, insectivorous male bats face a profound energetic challenge, as in the same period they have to make energy choices related to hibernation, mating and migration. To investigate these energetic trade-offs, we compared the body mass of male and female pond bats (Myotis dasycneme) through the summer season, characterized the known hibernacula in terms of male or female bias, and subsequently compared their population trend during two study periods, between 1930-1980 and 1980-2015. Towards the end of summer, males began losing weight whilst females were simultaneously accumulating fat, suggesting that males were pre-occupied with mating.