Universal streak camera for versatile time-resolved spectroscopy

光学活性材料是我们所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状态之间的快速转换及其与核运动的可能相互作用。这种跃迁的时间尺度非常快：电子的十亿分之一秒，核运动的万亿分之一秒。了解电子和核过程及其相关的相互作用对于设计具有新功能、更高效率和更低成本的设备至关重要。然而，快速的时间尺度并不容易直接测量。一种叫做条纹相机的工具能够直接记录从光学活性材料发出的光子，其时间尺度快于万亿分之一秒。与竞争方法相比，它可以以非凡的灵敏度做到这一点，同时解决发射光子的能量。我们正在申请一种“通用条纹相机”，它将允许在理工学院和美国大学的研究人员使用的各种不同操作条件下进行测量。蒙特利尔我们的团队将使用该系统来表征有机，无机，混合和纳米结构材料的广泛类别。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器，多体系统中的相变和通过生物组织的光散射。大蒙特利尔地区迫切需要获得这样一种工具。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.