Imaging and controlling nucleation

从溶液中成核新相，例如晶体的成核，对工业和基础科学具有极其重要的意义。我们将使用成像和强大的激光来控制液体和液体混合物中成核的早期阶段，从而测试关于非经典成核的现代想法。将这些系统驱离平衡非常远，将允许我们创造亚稳态和不稳定态，这将导致复杂的现象。随后的高度非平衡过程将使用显微镜，特别是使用一系列环境敏感染料的荧光显微镜来绘制。我们一直在开发一种新的仪器，它将改变晶体成核的研究，并将朝着控制结晶的多晶型迈出第一步。它包括使用强大的飞秒/皮秒激光诱导成核，以及可编程的衍射光学，从而产生了一种新的大规模平行成核装置。我们将对液体进行光谱成像，制作图像和电影，并进行花哨的数据分析，从这些数据中提取信息。

The nucleation of a new phase from solution, such as the nucleation of crystals, is of immense importance to industry and fundamental science. We will use imaging and powerful lasers to control the early stages of nucleation in liquids and liquid mixtures, thereby testing modern ideas on non-classical nucleation. Driving these systems very far from equilibrium will allow us to create meta- and unstable states that will give rise to complex phenomena. The subsequent highly non-equilibrium processes will be mapped using microscopy and, in particular, fluorescence microscopy using a range of environmentally sensitive dyes.We have been developing a novel instrument that will change the study of crystal nucleation and will make the first steps towards control over the polymorph that crystallises. It involves laser-induced nucleation using a powerful femtosecond/picosecond laser, and programmable diffractive optics, resulting in a novel massively parallel nucleation set-up. We will do spectroscopic imaging of liquids, making images and movies, and carry out fancy data analysis to extract information from these.