This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
The PIs are awarded a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program to develop a new time-resolved ultraviolet spectroscopy laboratory at the University of Colorado. The heart of the system will be a regeneratively amplified Titanium-sapphire system which will enable creation of ultrafast deep-ultraviolet radiation through the HHG (high harmonic generation) process, as well as the creation of tunable ultrafast radiation through the visible and the mid-infrared. This ultrafast radiation will principally be utilized for two unique spectroscopic probes which we will also develop under this program - ultraviolet pump-probe angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and ultraviolet pump-probe Raman spectroscopy. The general goal of the project will be to determine the dynamics of various excited states of a solid so as to understand the details of the relaxation processes and their origins (electron-electron, electron-phonon, etc.). This will be done by observing these processes from both the electron (pump-probe ARPES) and lattice (pump-probe Raman) points of view. This is in general an extremely rich and completely wide open area of study with applications to the study of many of the most important materials systems with some of the deepest underlying physics questions. These include correlated electron systems including high temperature superconductivity, electrochromic oxides, thermoelectric materials, etc. Another important class of materials to be studied is advanced photoconversion systems including organic photovoltaics, dye-sensitized solar cells, and semiconducting nanocrystals. A wide body of collaborators from across campus and nearby national laboratories (NREL and NIST) have expressed interest in using this facility, and many others are expected in the future.
Layman Summary: This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
The PIs are awarded a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program to develop a new time-resolved ultraviolet spectroscopy laboratory at the University of Colorado. The heart of the system will be a high power laser system which will create extremely short pulses of light with a wide range of wavelengths from the ultraviolet to the infrared. This laser light will principally be utilized to probe and understand materials physics in a time-resolved manner, telling us how the electrons move and interact with each other within a solid. This is in general an extremely rich and completely wide open area of study with applications to the study of many of the most important materials systems with some of the deepest underlying physics questions. Materials to be studied include high temperature superconductors, organic photovoltaics, dye-sensitized solar cells, semiconducting nanocrystals, and electrochromic oxides (materials which change color upon the application of a voltage, which could be used for "smart" windows. A wide body of collaborators from across campus and nearby national laboratories (NREL and NIST) have expressed interest in using this facility, and many others are expected in the future.
