Technical abstract: This Major Research Instrumentation award supports a team of investigators at the University of California San-Diego to develop a state of the art infrared (IR) nano-spectrosopy system for ultra-fast (10's of fs) spectroscopic pump-probe measurements in the setting of a near field nano-scope enabling imaging at ultra-small length scales down to 5-10 nm. This one-of-a-kind system is a hybrid of an amplified ultra-fast laser beamline and an atomic force microscope. The IR beamline is based on a Ti:Sapphire amplifier driving an optical parametric amplifier, difference frequency and optical rectification unit. This versatile system enables intense pump pulses and highly stable probe pulses over a broad frequency range from visible to far-IR frequencies. The tunable repetition rate of the proposed Ti:S amplifier will allow the investigators to optimize data acquisition conditions of near-field spectra and images. The apparatus will allow a broad group of researchers to address some of the problems at the forefront of contemporary physics, chemistry, materials science and biological physics. These issues include among others: a spectroscopic characterization of ultrafast electronic and plasmonic dynamics in graphene, photo-induced phase transitions in correlated electronic systems, phase separation and competition between many body effects in high-Tc superconductors and dynamics of confined water and lipid bilayers. A common aspect of these projects is that they all require ultra-fast pump-probe measurements with nanoscale spatial resolution. ****
Infrared (IR) light provides a universal means for probing the vibrational and electronic properties of matter. Near-field IR optics enable spatial resolution beyond the so-called diffraction limit, thus opening access to the world of the ultra-small (down to ~5-10 nm) and overcoming the limitations of commonly employed ultrafast experiments using conventional diffraction-limited optics. This Major Research Instrumentation award supports a multi-disciplinary team of researchers comprised of a physicist, a chemist and a neuroscientist to develop a state-of-the-art facility for IR nano-imaging and spectroscopy analysis of materials and life science specimens from across the sciences. Once built and commissioned, the nano-spectrometer will meet the research and pedagogical needs of the sciences at the University of California San Diego and facilitate greater exposure of advanced scientific instrumentation to faculty, students, partners in industry and government laboratories. The commercialization of the instrumentation will help to maintain US leadership in manufacturing state-of-the-art tools for probing matter at the nanoscale.
