Universal streak camera for versatile time-resolved spectroscopy

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Optically active materials are at the heart of much of the modern technology we are familiar with: the internet, smartphones, efficiencient lighting, solar cells, state-of-the-art tools for biodiagnostics, etc. The materials used for such applications rely on fast transitions between electronic states and their possible interplay with nuclear motion. The timescales for such transitions are extremely rapid: a billionth of a second for electrons and a trillionth of a second for nuclear motion. Understanding electronic and nuclear processes and their related interactions is crucial for engineering devices with new functionality, better efficiency and at a lower cost. The fast timescales, however, do not easily lend themselves to direct measurements. One tool, called a streak camera, is capable of directly recording the photons emitted from optically active materials on a timescale faster than a trillionth of a second. In contrast to competing approaches, it can do this with extraordinary sensitivity, while simultaneously resolving the energy of the emitted photons. We are requesting a "universal streak camera" that will allow measurements under the wide range of different operating conditions used by researchers at Polytechnique and U. Montreal. Our team will use the system for the characterisation of a broad class of organic, inorganic, hybrid and nanostructured materials. We will also implement state-of-the-art measurement techniques to shed light on the quantum nature single emitters, phase transitions in many-body systems and light scattering through biological tissues. Access to such a tool is direly needed in the greater Montreal area. It will serve to further enhance Canada's research competitiveness and play an important role in attracting and training HQP of the highest quality to our respective institutions.