The elucidation of the dynamics and mechanisms of elementary chemical reactions by the crossed molecular beams method and advanced laser technique is one of the major research areas. The dependence of molecular orientation and alignment of the excited orbital in the reaction of electronic excited atoms, the search for dynamic resonances in the completely state specific measurements of product angular distributions in chemical reactions, the reactions of transition metal atoms, and the reactions of hydroxyl radicals with unsaturated hydrocarbons are of current interest. Important elementary chemical reactions involved in combustion processes, atmospheric chemistry and instellar chemistry will be investigated.
　　Using the molecular beam technique, primary photodissociation processes are investigated either from the measurements of velocity and angular distributions or state distributions of dissociation products. Current interests lie in bond and mode selective photodissociation through electronic transitions, the concerted 3-center and 4-center elimination of H₂, and the elucidation of elementary processes involved in the decomposition of aromatic, heterocyclic, and energetic materials. One of the important questions which will be studied extensively is the isomerization of excited polyatomic radicals and unsaturated hydrocarbons prior to dissociation.
　　A unique experimental method developed in our laboratory enables us to carry out IR absorption spectroscopy of mass selected solvated ions in the gas phase. This method uses a scheme which combines tandem mass spectrometers with a radio frequency octopole ion trap and applies the infrared multiphoton dissociation process to selectively detect the absorption of IR photons by solvated ions. Structure of NH₄⁺(NH₃)n and H₃O⁺(H₂O)n (n=1 to 10) have been successfully elucidated. The major thrust of our current studies are in the investigation of various solvated anions, solvated electrons, and solvated metallic cations, as well as carbonium ions. The excitation of overtones and mode dependent vibrational predissociation of these ions will also be investigated.