From Femtoseconds to Nanometers: An Overview of Ultrafast Laser Spectroscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy at Boise State University

DIPC Seminars

Speaker

Paul Davis
Boise State University

When

2024/06/27
12:00

Place

Donostia International Physics Center (In person seminar)

Host

Javier Aizpurua

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In this talk, I will provide a high-level overview and highlight interesting results from two seemingly unrelated ongoing research efforts at Boise State University, ultrafast laser spectroscopy and advanced atomic force microscopy (AFM), before providing an example of combining the two techniques into a single measurement. On the optical spectroscopy front, we have used a combination of Stark (electroabsorption) spectroscopy, time correlated single photon counting (TCSPC), vis-NIR transient absorption (TA), femtosecond coherence spectroscopy (FCS), and 2-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2D ES) to characterize electronic structure and exciton dynamics in dye aggregates templated via DNA for potential applications in quantum computing. With regards to AFM, we have leveraged its ability to probe both surface topography and morphology as well as a sample’s nanoscale electrical, magnetic, mechanical, and electrochemical properties to investigate a wide array of sample types, ranging from biological materials such as DNA, lipid bilayers, live cells, and tissues to 2D materials, thin films, polymers, geological thick sections, magnetic materials, and metal alloys for applications in aerospace, biomedical implants, disease treatment, ion battery electrodes, memory and optical logic, renewable energy, shale oil, carbon sequestration and storage, and semiconductor patterning and devices. The ability to conduct AFM with environmental control (i.e., temperature and moisture content, ranging from submerged in fluid to ambient to a dry inert atmosphere with <0.1 ppm O2 and H2O) has enabled the study of samples under a wide range of relevant conditions, while co-localization of AFM with confocal Raman, super-resolution optical, and electron microscopy techniques has provided additional structure-property insights. Finally, I will bring the two initially disparate topics of ultrafast laser spectroscopy and AFM together by introducing AFM-IR and IR s-SNOM, which combine an AFM with a tunable femtosecond/picosecond infrared laser system (OPO/DFG) to enable IR spectroscopy for chemical composition analysis with nanoscale resolution, 3 orders of magnitude below the diffraction limit.