Universal streak camera for versatile time-resolved spectroscopy

光学活性材料是我们熟悉的许多现代技术的核心：互联网、智能手机、高效照明、太阳能电池、最先进的生物诊断工具等。用于此类应用的材料依赖于电子态之间的快速转换及其可能与核运动的相互作用。这种跃迁的时间尺度非常快：电子的时间为十亿分之一秒，原子核运动的时间为万亿分之一秒。了解电子和核过程及其相关的相互作用对于具有新功能、更高效率和更低成本的工程设备至关重要。然而，快速的时间尺度并不容易进行直接测量。有一种名为条纹相机的工具，能够以比万亿分之一秒更快的速度直接记录光学活性物质发出的光子。与竞争对手的方法不同，它可以以非凡的灵敏度做到这一点，同时还可以分解发射的光子的能量。我们正在要求一种“通用条纹相机”，它将允许在理工学院和蒙特利尔大学的研究人员使用的各种不同操作条件下进行测量。我们的团队将使用该系统对一大类有机、无机、混合和纳米结构材料进行表征。我们还将实施最先进的测量技术，以揭示量子性质的单发射体、多体系统中的相变和光通过生物组织的散射。在大蒙特利尔地区，迫切需要这样一个工具。这将有助于进一步提高加拿大的研究竞争力，并在吸引和培训最高质量的HQP到我们各自的机构方面发挥重要作用。

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.