Surface-aligned photochemistry

At the end of your Nobel lecture, as if projecting into the future, you mentioned two directions. One was transition-state spectroscopy and the other was surface-aligned photochemistry. That was nine years a o. Was this a prediction ... 

Giorgi JB, Kuhnemuth R, Polanyi JC. 1999. Surface-aligned photochemistry photolysis of HCl adsorbed on LiF(001) studied hy Rydherg-atom time-of-flight spectroscopy . J. Chem. Phys. 110(1) 598-605. 

An important issue in adsorbate photochemistry is the study of surface-aligned photoreactions. This interesting dynamical aspect of surface photochemistry is possible because the substrate is capable of... 

Finally, we consider the interaction of photons with adsorbed molecules and, specifically, laser-induced desorption and laser-induced photoffagmentation processes. The potential practical applications of the former have resulted in considerable activity, but definitive generalizations on the dynamics are still not at hand. Photochemistry at surfaces is being actively explored (Dai and Ho, 1995), and the ability of the surface to align the absorbed molecules (Polanyi, 2001) allows reactions to occur with restricted geometries of approach as shown in Figure 12.9. 

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