New opportunities and emerging themes of research in microwave spectroscopy

It is easy to set a frisbee spinning but hard to flip a javelin end-over-end. The properties of a rotating body are determined by its moment of inertia. Changes in the energy associated with the rotation of a single molecule are incremental, or quantized, in contrast with the everyday examples of the frisbee and the javelin. Only photons with energies that correspond to specific discrete frequencies of electromagnetic radiation can be absorbed or emitted to cause transitions between different rotational energy levels. Photons that cause rotational transitions generally have microwave or millimetre-wave frequencies. Microwave spectroscopy thus provides a basis for exploring molecular structure through studies of molecular rotation. The first experiments involving microwave spectroscopy exploited technology developed for radio detection and ranging during the Second World War. Microwave spectroscopy is now being applied to study chemical reactions significant in atmospheric chemistry and to probe superfluidity in Hen clusters. This article reviews the research themes that were the focus of the past 50 years and surveys new opportunities.