Picosecond Laser Spectroscopy System for Undergraduate Laboratory

这个项目涉及皮秒激光方法学，旨在激发本科生的想象力，并说明现代光谱学在化学研究中的作用。使用该系统进行的实验将向高级本科生介绍现代激光光谱学和液态光化学反应动力学中的重要概念；电子激发态寿命和能量转移；电子转移；光生物现象；粘性液体、聚合物溶液和液晶中的取向和结构弛豫动力学；以及包括受激光散射、全光开关和其他效应在内的非线性光学。化学和材料科学之间的接口将通过对几类重要的凝聚相材料的实验来说明。这项由化学仪器计划颁发的仪器和实验室改进(ILI)奖将帮助麻省理工学院化学系获得皮秒激光仪器，用于加强本科实验室教学。

This project, involving picosecond laser methodology, is designed to stimulate the imaginations of undergraduates and to illustrate the role of modern spectroscopy in chemical research. Experiments conducted with the system will introduce advanced undergraduate students to modern laser spectroscopy and to concepts important in liquid-state photochemical reaction dynamics; electronic excited-state lifetimes and energy transfer; electron transfer; photobiological phenomena; orientational and structural relaxation dynamics in viscous liquids, polymer solutions and liquid crystals; and nonlinear optics including stimulated light scattering, all-optical switching and other effects. The interface between chemistry and materials science will be illustrated by experiments on several classes of important condensed-phase materials. This Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement (ILI) award from the Chemical Instrumetation Program will help the Department of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to acquire picosecond laser instrumentation that will be used to enhance undergraduate laboratory instruction.