Facilities

Main facilities

Coherent Chameleon Ultra II ultrafast Ti:Sapphire laser:

  • Coherent Chameleon Ultra II hands-free ultrafast Ti:Sapphire laser provides femtosecond pulses with tuning more than 400 nm, from 680 nm to 1080 nm and peak power 4.3 W (at 800 nm) all in one box. Fully automated for the ultimate ease-of-use the Chameleon Ultra II is operated either via a simple menu-driven interface located on the power supply or via an external computer.
  • Harmonix Second Harmonic Generation which converts the wavelengths of the Chameleon Ultra II (680-1080 nm) to 340-540 nm range.
  • The Coherent Chameleon Ultra II together with the Second Harmonic Generation module allow us to measure the fast dynamics of photo-excited carries within single nanostructures. This system will also allow us to pump the samples resonantly.

High Spectral Resolution (0.01 nm) spectrometer and CCD camera

  • Spectrometer: Horiba Jobin Yvon iHR550 f/6.4 high resolution spectrometer with three gratings, 150, 600 and 1200 grooves/mm optimized for UV-visible wavelength, on a single turret.
  • CCD detector: Horiba Jobin Yvon Synapse Back-Illuminated with QE up to 95% in the visible frequency, 2048x512 pixels (13.5 micrometers/pixel), thermoelectrically cooled to -80oC.

Home built optical Bright/Dark field microscopes (sub-micron resolution):

  • 150X 0.9NA, 100X 0.9NA, 60X 0.8NA, 20X Bright/Dark field microscope objectives together with nano-positioning linear stage (Newport 9063-XYZ-PPP), 25 mm travel range and 30 nm resolution will allow optical characterizations of single nanostructures.

Single nanostructure spectroscopies (plasmonic nanoparticles, quantum dots, molecules, etc...):

Polarization Optics

  • Sets of Newport and Thorlabs polarizers and wave-plates allow us to measure various optical signals with different polarizations and frequencies.

Time-correlated single photon counting setup (< 30 ps timing resolution):

  • The TCSPC system includes two very sensitive detectors (PDM photodiodes with < 30 ps time resolution, single photon sensitivity), a reference photodiode (TDA 200), and an electronic timing box (Picoharp 300, 4 ps time resolution).

Closed-Cycle Cryostat for low temperature measurements:

  • Temperature range: ~8 K - 300 K (at sample mount)
  • Nanoscale vibration at sample mount during operation
  • Horizontal vacuum shroud extension with top and bottom quartz windows
  • Sample holder with a heater and temperature sensor.
  • Vacuum shroud with electrical feed-throughs.

Automation:

  • Our equipment and experimental setups are fully automated. All equipment are interfaced with computers and all experiments are controlled by a collection of customized LabView programs.

As it is happening....

  • New set of objective lenses has just arrived. These are newest models of Bright/Dark field objective lenses (including Extra Long Working Distance ones) from Nikon, which will allow us to do measurements of single nanostructures at both room and low temperatures.
  • New High Performance CCD camera from Photometrics is now available in the lab. This camera allows us to do imaging of signal from individual nanostructures. Bright spots (left image) are from individual plasmonic nanoparticles under white light illumination. The camera can take images up to near IR frequency.
  • Angle-resolved transmission experimental setup. This newly built setup is for an undergraduate project but it is perfectly suited for any cutting edge research measurement. All Labview controlled with sub-degree resolution.
  • New microscope in action...
  • Complication