Investigations in Ultrafast Laser Science

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Speaker(s): Sarah Nichols

Many molecular processes take place in regions of space, time, and/or frequency that are difficult to access experimentally. For instance, visible light microscopy is often limited by sample scattering issues, as well as by the lack of natural fluorescence in many molecules of interest. Complex biological and chemical systems inherently have multiple resonances at a variety of frequencies, such that single-frequency laser excitation rapidly becomes cost-prohibitive. Ultrafast (femtosecond) lasers can, with appropriate pulse-shaping, provide solutions to all of these problems for a wide variety of applications. Sample investigations into molecular ionization dynamics, non-destructive imaging, and chemical identification will be discussed and compared with theory.

Colloquium

Junior and senior physics majors attend our biweekly colloquium series, held on Tuesday afternoons at 4:30 p.m. in Shanahan B460. The talks are open to all students and to the public, and are frequently attended by scientists from the other Claremont Colleges, Cal Poly Pomona, and others. The series features speakers from a broad range of institutions and fields of physics.