Seminar "Synchrotron infrared spectroscopy: from spectroscopy to microscopy to nano spectroscopy" by Paul Dumas (Research Director CNRS)

Nanoparticles by Design Unit (Sowwan Unit) would like to invite you to a seminar by Prof. Paul Dumas from SOLEIL Synchrotron, France.

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Date:   May 15th, Tuesday, 2018

Time:   2 pm – 3pm

Venue: Meeting Room C016, Level C, Lab 1

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Title: “Synchrotron infrared spectroscopy: from spectroscopy to microscopy to nano spectroscopy”

Speaker: Paul Dumas

Affiliation: SOLEIL Synchrotron

Abstract:

Synchrotron radiation is a unique source of photons ranging from the long wavelength domain (THz) to the hard X-ray domain, all of them being highly polarized, pulsed, about thousand times brighter than standard  sources. There are several synchrotron facilities around the world, and the best-known usage of such facilities lies in the X-ray energy domain. Nevertheless, infrared spectroscopy has attracted attention in the early 90s and has expanded in almost all synchrotron facilities today, due the attractiveness of this vibrational spectroscopic technique.

Many breakthrough advances that are often at the cutting edge of technological development took place at synchrotron facilities. In the case of IR spectroscopy, from spectroscopy to microscopy and to (more recently) nano-spectroscopy, the last decade has seen important developments in infrared instrumentation incorporated to and developed at synchrotron facilities to take advantage of the characteristics of the bright synchrotron source.

In this presentation, after recalling the fundamentals of synchrotron radiation, we will describe the origin and nature of synchrotron infrared microspectroscopy and nanospectroscopy, highlighting some of the key developments that have made an  impact in Solid State Physics, Astrophysics, High Pressure Research (leading to new chemistry), archaeology, biology, and biomedicine. Audience will be asked to select the preferred applications it would like to be presented in more details.

Nano spectroscopy and imaging is the latest development at synchrotron infrared beamline. Scattering of the infrared light under an AFM tip can be detected with an interferometer, and results in analysis with resolution only limited by the tip size (10 nm being the best achieved today). Most of the recent applications are in supra- and semi- conductors research; but also biological and archaeological applications are emerging.

The state of the art of the technique will be presented, and perspectives discussed.

Biography:

Paul Dumas is Director of Research Emeritus at CNRS (Center National Recherche Scientifique) and working at the French Synchrotron SOLEIL Radiation Center. A physicist by training, he specialized in the design and optimization in synchrotron infrared emission and exploitation in microscopy and spectroscopy at various synchrotron facilities worldwide. Having led the  synchrotron infrared program in micro-spectroscopy at LURE, then at SOLEIL, he is specialized  in physics of interfaces, high pressure science, archaeology and cultural heritage, biology, and applications of this technique to medical diagnosis.