The objective of this program is to employ steady-state and ultrafast spectroscopy to perform chemical physics studies aimed at characterizing and understanding optical properties and dynamics of molecules and materials. Various optical methods are employed over a broad spectral range (UV to mid IR) to reveal the temporal, spectral, and structural evolution in processes that include molecular energy transfer and photochemistry, transient heating and cooling, as well as carrier dynamics for a range of materials. Recent work has focused on (1) ultrafast dynamics of plasmonic, semiconductor, and thin film materials; (2) characterization of nanostructures including surface phonon polariton resonances in polar dielectrics; and (3) investigation of the spectra and dynamics of cavity coupled molecular vibrations.

Experiments involve femtosecond laser (~100 fs) spectroscopy using transient absorption, and other nonlinear optical and ultrafast methods over a broad spectral range (200 nm to 12 μm). Facilities include microspectrophotometers for transmission and reflection in the UV to mid IR; vibrational circular dichroism spectrometer; a 2 mJ, 1 kHz regeneratively-amplified, titanium sapphire laser system equipped with two optical parametric amplifiers, as well as a high repetition rate regenerative amplifier system and the requisite detection capabilities for ultrafast studies; nanosecond and multiple wavelength cw lasers for extended time range (sub-microsecond) and measurements; access to bench spectrometers and nanomaterial fabrication instrumentation.

 

key words

Molecular dynamics; Chemical physics; Vibrational relaxation; Ultrafast laser spectroscopy, Molecular spectroscopy; Infrared spectroscopy; Nanomaterials; Plasmonics, metamaterials and phonon polaritons; Photochemistry; Vibrational relaxation; Energy transfer;

Citizenship:  Open to U.S. citizens and permanent residents

Level:  Open to Postdoctoral applicants