Our Labs
Our synthetic labs are equipped with Schlenk lines and suitable vacuum equipment. The sample preparation lab has Ar/N2 lines. We also have quartz cuvettes with J. Young valves for measurements under controlled atmosphere, flow cells for steady-state and time-resolved IR and UV/Vis measurements, and a potentiostat with an electrode set for CV/DPV and spectroelectrochemistry.
Our laser labs are equipped with two amplified femtosecond laser systems, described below.
The School of Chemistry has further shared analytical equipment (i.e. FTIR, UV-Vis, Emission, NMR, etc.).
M.E.O.W. is short for Multipulse Experiments at Optical Wavelengths.
Alternatively, it stands for Middle-Earth Optical World, for the names that we've given to our instruments.
MEOW Lab (115): Solstice Ace (Spectra Physics) 800 nm/90 fs@1 kHz (Gandalf), pumping two TOPAS-C optical parametric amplifiers. The first OPA (Radagast) generates mid-IR probe pulses from ~1400-3300 cm-1. The second OPA (Galadriel) generates either UV/Vis excitation pulses from ~320 to 900 nm or mid-IR pump pulses in the ~1400-3300 cm-1 region (thanks to a homebuilt NDFG setup). A TOPAS-White OPA (Saruman) generates short UV/Vis pump pulses from ~300 to 750 nm. A 800/400 nm second harmonic excitation line is also available. In all cases, we can cover time delays up to ca. 2 ns.
A mid-IR detection setup coupled to a mid-IR pulse shaper enables collection of transient IR (TRIR), 2D-IR and transient 2D-IR spectra (actinic pumps available from 310-800 nm). The time resolution of the IR setup is in the order of 250 fs for UV/Vis excitation, and 100 fs for mid-IR excitation.
A fully reflective UV/Vis supercontinuum detection setup enables collection of electronic transient absorption (TA) and 1D/2D vibrational-electronic (1D/2D-VE) spectra. Our electronic TA setup has a time resolution of ca. 120 fs for UV/Vis excitation pulses, probing in the 315-800 nm region. Current developments aim to compress the probe pulses down to sub-100 fs.
Lab Mascot: 