The vibrational and rotational degrees of freedom in a molecule add complexity that complicate optical cycling and state preparation procedures. However, the same additional degrees of freedom also make molecules suitable candidates for tests of physics beyond the standard model. A precision measurement of the transition energy between two vibrational...
Quantum mechanical phenomena are playing tremendous roles in many areas of chemistry and materials science research. In recent years, the potential role of coupling between electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom in photochemical processes has been widely researched. Despite its potential to improve molecular technologies, the lack of studies focusing...
Semiconductor nanocrystals possess unique photophysical properties that make them desirable for many optoelectronic applications such as photovoltaics, LEDs, and quantum computing. When the size of a semiconductor is reduced to below the excitonic Bohr radius of the material, its carriers becomes quantum confined resulting in drastic changes to optical, electronic,...
Organic semiconductors have shown great promise for optoelectronic applications, particularly solar photovoltaics. Critical to their success is the ability to understand and manipulate the relationship between molecular structure and bulk properties. Substantial progress on understanding structural influences on electronic properties has been made for the conjugated polymers and small molecules...
Understanding how spin waves propagate through ferromagnets is an important component of a wider international effort to create spintronic devices. In this thesis, we develop a propagating spin wave spectroscopy to make a variety of measurements on thin films of Yttrium Iron Garnet (YIG), a material known for having long...
The physical boundary layer, or interface, between two different phases of matter is the site of chemical and physical processes that are critical to many research fields. Many of these interfaces contain electric charge, which influences the structure and composition of the interfacial region and the interactions between the interface...
Supported metal oxides are an important class of heterogeneous catalysts active for many selective oxidation reactions including alkane oxidative dehydrogenation. Attempts to develop fundamental structure-function relationships for supported metal oxide catalysts for alkane oxidative dehydrogenation have been challenging, with many conflicting reports in literature. This has been in part due...
Heterogeneous catalysts play a prominent role in our society, used in applications that range from the production of plastics to the catalytic cracking of crude oil. Industrial catalysts are typically made of mixed metal oxides or nanosized metal particles deposited on high surface area supports. Industrially relevant catalytic materials are...
Ultrafast spectroscopy offers an unprecedented view on the dynamic nature of chemical reactions. From charge transfer in semiconductors to folding and isomerization of proteins, these all important processes can now be monitored and in some instances even controlled on real, physical timescales. One of the biggest challenges of ultrafast science...