Ultrafast Transient Absorption Spectroscopy presented by Giulio Cerullo, Politecnico di Milano

Abstract: Transient absorption (TA) is the simplest ultrafast spectroscopy technique, as it can be applied over a very broad range of frequencies, from THz to X-rays, providing an enormous amount of information on photoinduced dynamical processes in (bio)-molecules, nanostructures and solids. This webinar will review the basic principles of TA spectroscopy, present the most common experimental implementations and give examples of its application to solving problems in biochemistry and materials science.

Speaker: 

Giulio Cerullo is a Full Professor with the Physics Department, Politecnico di Milano, where he leads the Ultrafast Optical Spectroscopy laboratory. Prof. Cerullo’s research activity covers a broad area known as “Ultrafast Optical Science”, and concerns on the one hand pushing our capabilities to generate and manipulate ultrashort light pulses, and on the other hand using such pulses to capture the dynamics of ultrafast events in molecules, nanostructures and two-dimensional materials (graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides). Additional research topics are the applications of ultrafast lasers to coherent Raman microscopy and  micro/nanostructuring. He has published more than 450 papers which have received more than 20000 citations (H-index: 75, Scopus). He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and of the European Physical Society and Chair of the Quantum Electronics and Optics Division of the European Physical Society. He is the recipient of an ERC Advanced Grant (2012-2017) on two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy of biomolecules. He is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the journals Optica, Laser&Photonics Reviews, Scientific Reports, Chemical Physics, Journal of Raman spectroscopy. He is General Chair of the conferences CLEO/Europe 2017, Ultrafast Phenomena 2018 and the International Conference on Raman Spectroscopy 2020.

Multidimensional Coherent Spectroscopy presented by Steve Cundiff, University of Michigan

Abstract: Multdimensional coherent spectroscopy (MDCS) is a powerful method that has its origins in NMR. Over the last 20 years, a number of approaches to implementing MDCS in the IR and visible spectral regimes have been developed. MDCS has many advantages over simpler techniques including separation of inhomogeneous and homogeneous broadening, determining if resonances are coupled and providing background free signatures of inter-system interactions. I will review the basic concepts of MDCS, give an overview of methods used in the optical domain and briefly give some examples of its applications.

Speaker: 

Steven T. Cundiff is the Harrison M. Randall Collegiate Professor of Physics Professor at the University of Michigan and holds joint appointments with Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. In 1992, he received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the University of Michigan. He spent two years at the University of Marburg, Germany, as a von Humboldt Post-doctoral Fellow. After that he was at Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, until joining JILA at Boulder, Colorado in 1997, where he served as the Chief of the Quantum Physics Division at NIST.  He joined the faculty at University of Colorado in 2014.  He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America.  Just recently, OSA honoured Dr. Cundiff contributions to Optical Sciences with the Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science. Dr. Cundiff is co-author on over 175 journal papers, 230 contributed conference papers and 95 invited conference presentations. His research areas include the use of ultrafast pulses to study light-matter interactions, as well as their production and manipulation. The primary tool used for studying light-matter interaction is multidimensional coherent spectroscopy, which we are currently applying to both semiconductor nanostructures and atomic vapors.