With support from the Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities: Departmental Multi-User Instrumentation (CRIF:MU) Program, the Department of Chemistry at Case Western Reserve University will acquire a set of ultrafast lasers and associated instrumentation to build the experimental capability in a new Center for Chemical Dynamics (CCD). This equipment will allow researchers to pursue a large number of state-of-the-art experiments in photophysical and photochemical research. Addition of the new instrumentation in the CCD is expected to impact important research areas such as proteomics, photodynamic and other therapeutic designs, chemical biology, molecular electronics and computing, photo- and electroactive materials, and nanomaterials. The instrumentation will be used in formal and informal laboratory settings to engage undergraduate students at Case in research-quality, time-resolved spectroscopy of photoactive systems. In the future, this undergraduate research initiative will be expanded to bring students at other institutions to the CCD for summer programs. These efforts will provide research experience at the undergraduate level through senior capstone projects and traditional undergraduate research (initially, 30-40 BS and BA Chemistry majors per year at Case).
Ultrafast laser spectroscopy provides a powerful probe of molecular information. Many chemical and biological processes occur on the femtosecond time scale, including electron transfer, photochemical reactions, and molecular energy dynamics. The CCD is a new effort at Case to foster world-class research into chemical dynamics in its central applications to the physical sciences, engineering and biomedical fields.
