Equipment: Acquisition of an Ultrafast Laser for Research and Education at North Carolina Central University

历史上的黑人学院和大学本科项目(HBCU-UP)为加强HBCU的STEM本科教育和研究提供了支持。北卡罗来纳中央大学(NCCU)的这项设备提案寻求建立一个超快光纤激光系统，以支持跨STEM学科的材料研究和教育。该系统将增强现有的超快显微镜能力，并开发更多的远场和近场光学和太赫兹光谱分析设施。这种基于光纤的激光器是一个坚固的交钥匙系统，可以抵抗环境实验室条件的变化，最大限度地减少优化所需的时间和专业知识，并使实验能够在更长的时间内进行，并且具有足够的功率，能够同时执行几个超快光谱分析实验。这些能力将被用于建立时间分辨瞬变吸收显微镜、光致发光显微镜、远场和近场太赫兹光谱以及二维电子光谱实验，以研究超快(~100飞秒)时间分辨率的载流子动力学和电荷转移。因此，该仪器将使来自北卡罗来纳中央大学化学和物理项目的不同教职员工和学生能够研究先进材料中广泛超快现象的潜在机制，包括非均质有机-无机金属卤化物钙钛矿中的电荷传输，混合维度0D/2D异质结构中的电荷转移，以及整体聚合物异质结中纳米级结构和电荷转移之间的关系。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities - Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) provides support to strengthen STEM undergraduate education and research at HBCUs. This Equipment Proposal from North Carolina Central University (NCCU) seeks the establishment of an ultrafast fiber laser system to support materials research and education across STEM disciplines. The system will enable enhancement of existing ultrafast microscopy capabilities and development of additional far- and near-field optical and THz spectroscopy facilities.This fiber-based laser is a robust turnkey system that is resistant to changes in ambient laboratory conditions, minimizing the time and expertise needed for optimization and enabling experiments performed over longer durations and has sufficient power to enable simultaneous performance of several ultrafast spectroscopy experiments. These capabilities will be used to build time resolved transient absorption microscopy, photoluminescence microscopy, far- and near-field terahertz spectroscopy and two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy experiments to study carrier dynamics and charge transfer with ultrafast (~ 100 femtosecond) time resolution. The instrument will thus enable a diverse group of faculty and students drawn from the Chemistry and Physics programs at North Carolina Central University to investigate mechanisms underlying a wide range of ultrafast phenomena in advanced materials, including charge transport in heterogeneous organic-inorganic metal halide perovskites, charge transfer in mixed-dimensional 0D/2D heterostructures and the relationship between nanoscale structure and charge transfer in bulk polymer heterojunctions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.