| Citation | Maier has made numerous brilliant contributions to the development of state-of-the-art spectroscopic techniques for detecting and studying the structure and dynamics of transient species, particularly ions, ion clusters and long carbon chain species. Such systems were heretofore totally inaccessible and the concerted development of novel experimental techniques has resulted in a string of major successes. Particularly ingenious is a technique in which mass-selected ions are isolated in a neon matrix with waveguide transmission optical quality which enables high-Q absorption sensitivity to be achieved. The condensed phase measurements enable high resolution laser spectra of these species in the gas phase to be detected. This elegant synergistic combination of condensed and gas phase techniques has culminated in the first compelling assignment of a carrier of some Diffuse Interstellar Bands (a 60 year major mystery in astronomy) to a carbon chain anion. The study of negatively charged long carbon chains is an outstanding achievement in itself however the astronomical aspect is a particularly exciting result with major implications for a revision of our perspective on the conditions in interstellar space.
Maier's research commenced with the development of a powerful general technique for detecting the emission spectra of polyatomic cations at a time when very few ion spectra were known. These spectra suddenly became almost routinely available and over a hundred were studied. This led to a broad-based programme involving mass selection, supersonic free jets, laser excitation, photoelectron-photon coincidence methods, stimulated emission pumping etc for studying the spectra of ions and details of their dynamics, such as those involved in radiationless processes. To excel in this demanding field requires experimental, technical and theoretical expertise of the highest order and Maier's work stands out in this exciting and highly competitive area in that innovative experimental developments have been made and highly imaginative fundamental problems in molecular spectroscopy, dynamics and astrophysics have been tackled. Some of the key species studied are: HCnH+(n=1,2,3,4), C2+, N2+-Hen(n=1,2,3), H2-HCO+, N4+, C60+ and C7-. |