MRI: Acquisition of an Ultrafast Amplified Laser System

MRI：获取超快放大激光系统

• 批准号: 1532125
• 负责人: Eric Potma
• 金额: $ 44.3万
• 依托单位: University of California-Irvine
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1532125&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; Acquisition; Ultrafast; Amplified; Laser

This Major Research Instrumentation award supports the acquisition of an ultrafast multimodal spectroscopy system. This system enables advanced time-resolved spectroscopy experiments, a key capability in material and molecular research. The system will be placed in the Laser Spectroscopy Facility (LSF), housed in the Department of Chemistry of the University of California Irvine. Traditionally, ultrafast lasers and spectroscopy have not been part of user facilities because former ultrafast laser technologies were too complex and unreliable to support many users. Consequently, the user community of ultrafast technologies has remained small, and the unique research capabilities of ultrafast optical techniques have remained inaccessible to an audience interested in such capabilities. In this Program, a state-of-the-art ultrafast laser system is made accessible through a three-pronged model based on optimized facility conditions, strong user support and a partnership with industry. This model addresses past limitations to make ultrafast laser technology and its research capabilities accessible to a much broader community of researchers. In making the technology available to a much larger user base, the impact of ultrafast spectroscopy is significantly amplified. The Program ensures broad exposure and dissemination of ultrafast spectroscopy capabilities. On the UCI campus alone, the Laser Spectroscopy Facility (LSF) in which the system will be housed supports more than 300 users, and serves 13 departments on campus. By leveraging strong connections with institutions and companies neighboring UCI, a large community of researchers will have access to the ultrafast spectroscopy capabilities offered through the facility. The impact of the requested technology is further fortified by a strong user training program, established channels of dissemination, and an outreach program designed around the ultrafast spectroscopy instrument The most fundamental processes in matter evolve on ultrafast time scales. Examples include the making and breaking of chemical bonds, conformational motions of molecules, evolution of optical excitations, and electron transfer processes. These phenomena form the mechanistic basis of scientific challenges in chemistry, biology and materials science: designing efficient catalysts, understanding nature's solution to light harvesting materials, and optimizing the efficiency of solar cells, to name a few. Ultrafast laser technologies have proven indispensable for meeting these challenges, as they provide direct recordings of such fast fundamental processes. Consequently, the demand for ultrafast spectroscopy is growing, as an increasingly expanding pool of chemists, chemical engineers, physicists, and biologists come to rely on this technology. The goal of this Program is to bring the unique capabilities of ultrafast laser science to a broad community of researchers. This goal is achieved by implementing a three-pronged model: 1) Acquisitions of a commercial ultrafast laser light source and nonlinear optical spectrometer, with unprecedented performance, versatility, stability, and simplicity of operation. The system is made available through a staffed user facility at the University of California, Irvine (UCI); 2) A partnership with Newport Optics, the supplier of the instrument. The partnership establishes a push-pull mechanism between technology and application for impacting a broad community beyond the users at UCI; 3) The Ultrafast Consultation Board (UCB), a team of experimental and theoretical ultrafast spectroscopists who provide general assistance, technical guidance, mentoring and help with the interpretation of data. By providing depth to the analysis of acquired spectroscopic data, the UCB bolsters the scientific impact of measurements made by non-experts, expands the user base, and magnifies the breadth of research topics supported by this Program.

这项主要的研究仪器奖支持获得超快多模式光谱系统的获取。该系统可实现先进的时间分辨光谱实验，这是材料和分子研究的关键能力。该系统将放置在加利福尼亚大学欧文分校化学系的激光光谱设施（LSF）中。传统上，超快激光器和光谱验证并不是用户设施的一部分，因为以前的超快激光技术太复杂且不可靠，无法支持许多用户。因此，超快技术的用户社区仍然很小，并且对这种能力感兴趣的受众，超快光学技术的独特研究能力仍然无法访问。在该计划中，可以通过基于优化的设施条件，强大的用户支持和与行业的合作伙伴关系的三管齐下的模型来访问最先进的超快激光系统。该模型解决了过去的局限性，以使更广泛的研究人员可以访问超快激光技术及其研究能力。在使技术可用于更大的用户群时，超快光谱的影响得到了显着放大。该程序确保了超快光谱能力的广泛暴露和传播。仅在UCI校园内，该系统将被安置的激光光谱设施（LSF）支持300多名用户，并为校园的13个部门提供服务。通过利用与UCI附近的机构和公司的牢固联系，大批研究人员将可以访问该设施提供的超快光谱功能。强大的用户培训计划，已建立的传播渠道以及围绕超快光谱仪器设计的外展计划进一步加强了所请求的技术的影响，这是超快时间尺度上物质进化的最基本过程。例子包括化学键的形成和破坏，分子的构象运动，光激发的演变以及电子传递过程。这些现象构成了化学，生物学和材料科学中科学挑战的机械基础：设计有效的催化剂，了解自然对轻收集材料的解决方案以及优化太阳能电池的效率，仅举几例。超快激光技术已证明是应对这些挑战必不可少的，因为它们提供了如此快速的基本过程的直接记录。因此，随着化学家，化学工程师，物理学家和生物学家越来越扩展的超快光谱的需求正在增长。该计划的目的是将超快激光科学的独特功能带给广泛的研究人员社区。通过实施三个传统的模型来实现此目标：1）商业超快激光源和非线性光谱仪的采集，具有前所未有的性能，多功能性，稳定性和操作简单性。该系统可通过加利福尼亚大学尔湾分校（UCI）的配备人员设施提供； 2）与乐器供应商Newport Optics建立合作伙伴关系。该合作伙伴关系建立了技术与应用程序之间的推动机制，以影响UCI用户以外的广泛社区； 3）超快咨询委员会（UCB），一个实验和理论超快谱系师的团队，他们提供一般帮助，技术指导，指导和帮助的数据解释。通过为获得的光谱数据分析提供深度，UCB巩固了非专家进行的测量的科学影响，扩展了用户群，并扩大了该计划支持的研究主题的广度。