MRI-R2: Acquisition of Shared Laser Facility

0958790Romanowski“该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。”本提案描述了一个广泛可调谐飞秒激光系统的获取，该系统包括一个由钛蓝宝石激光器泵浦的光学参量振荡器和相关仪器。它将使纳米技术、材料科学和医学领域的广泛实验工作成为可能。这种高度先进的仪器非常昂贵，无法通过个人研究资金获得。所要求的仪器将安装在一种新型的激光束设施中，该设施将提供对激光束的开放访问，并根据研究人员共享光谱学和成像研究重点的需要，为多个实验装置提供空间。化学、材料科学、生物学和医学等许多领域的研究都依赖于光来探测单个分子的结构和功能、它们的组装和生命系统。越来越重要的是理解光物理和光化学在时间尺度短至飞秒，并在广泛的光谱范围跨越紫外，可见光和近红外。共享激光设备是由代表广泛的研究专业知识和活跃项目的核心用户群要求的。一旦安装，它将加快医疗诊断和干预、生物威胁剂分析方法、太阳能收集和转换以及基础科学的研究步伐。

0958790Romanowski"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."This proposal describes acquisition of a broadly tunable femtosecond laser system, which includes an optical parametric oscillator pumped by a titanium-sapphire laser and associated instrumentation. It will enable a broad range of experimental work on the interface of nanotechnology, materials sciences and medicine. This highly advanced instrumentation is prohibitively expensive to be acquired through individual research funding. The requested instrument will be installed in a novel type of a laser beam facility, which will provide open access to the laser beam, and room for multiple experimental installations as required by researchers sharing the research focus on optical spectroscopy and imaging. Research in many areas of chemistry, materials sciences, biology and medicine relies on using light for probing structure and function of individual molecules, their assemblies, and living systems. Increasingly important is understanding of photophysics and photochemistry at the time scale as short as femtoseconds, and in the broad spectral range spanning ultraviolet, visible and near infrared. The shared laser facility is requested by a core user base representing a broad range of research expertise and active projects. When installed, it will accelerate the pace of research in medical diagnosis and intervention, analytical methods for bio-threat agents, solar energy harvesting and conversion, and basic sciences.