About our work:
Optical physics deals with the generation, propagation and physical properties of light; the optical properties of matter; and the interaction of light and matter. Our group focuses on the interactions of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared laser light with surfaces, surface-supported nanoparticles, and gas-phase clusters. We use conventional lasers and the W. M. Keck Vanderbilt Free-Electron Laser in our research projects, which include:
- Phase transitions in metal-oxide nanoparticles and nanoparticle arrays, such as the metal-insulator transition in vanadium dioxide.
- Linear and nonlinear optical processes in metal and metal-oxide nanoparticle arrays, such as harmonic generation, four-wave mixing, and plasmon resonance processes.
- Ultraviolet and infrared laser-induced desorption and ablation in compound semiconductors, insulators, and hard biological tissues.
- Laser-desorption mass spectrometry of proteins, DNA and other organic molecules by infrared free-electron-laser and convention ultraviolet laser irradiation.
- Ultrafast optical bistability, dielectric and quantum confinement effects and laser-induced fluorescence in metal quantum dots embedded in glasses and crystals.
Optical and charged-particle spectroscopies - such as degenerate four-wave mixing, single-beam nonlinear refraction, picosecond pump-probe spectroscopy, photoacoustic spectroscopy, laser-induced fluorescence, mass spectroscopy, time-correlated photon counting and photoemission – are the basic "tool kit" for our experiments. In addition, we make heavy use of scanning and transmission electron microscopy and of scanning-probe microscopies, such as atomic-force and near-field scanning optical microscopies (AFM and SNOM).
more information in our research link
