New surface nonlinear spectroscopy capability: Picosecond-femtosecond broadband sum frequency generation system
Thursday, June 30, 2011 - 14:00
in Physics & Chemistry
In Dr. Hongfei Wang's spectroscopy laboratory at the end of EMSL's main hallway, the lights are always off. Because the instrumental capability his team has built uses lasers as its main weapon, light interference would hinder scientific results. So Wang, postdoctoral researcher Dr. Luis Velarde, and visiting scientist Dr. Xianyi Zhang constantly wear headlamps in the lab, giving them the appearance of old-time coal miners. But instead of coal, they are using the new surface nonlinear spectroscopy capability to dig up never-before-seen data on molecular interactions at interfaces. Early in 2011, they struck a vein that could lead scientists in many fields to research gold.