Catalytic Nanocluster Structures and Reactivities

美国经济中超过1万亿美元的收入可能来自催化剂技术。这些技术的应用范围从新的和创新的服装纤维到医药和替代能源燃料电池。然而，对于许多催化系统来说，决定这些过程如何和为什么发生的基本物理和化学仍然很大程度上是未知的。现在，人们开始在最小的水平上了解催化系统，因为研究组成可能会导致对大块材料的更完整的理解。要做到这一点，我们需要两个激光系统：(1)作为纳米团簇分子束源的烧蚀激光器的Nd：YAG激光器和(2)作为询问纳米团簇物种的可调谐探测激光系统的光学参量振荡器(OPO)激光系统。

Over $1 trillion of revenue in the U.S. economy may be accounted for by catalyst technologies. Applications for these technologies range from new and innovative clothing fibres to medicine and alternative energy fuel cells. The underlying physics and chemistry that dictates how and why these processes occur, however, remains largely unknown for many catalytic systems. Now, there is a drive towards understanding catalytic systems on the smallest level, since studying the constituent pieces may lead to a more complete understanding of the bulk material. To do this, we require two laser systems: (1) a Nd:YAG laser as an ablation laser for a nanocluster molecular beam source and (2) an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) laser system as a tuneable probe laser system for interrogating nanocluster species.