The Physics department colloquia are usually on Friday afternoons at 3:30 pm in Lapham Hall Room 160. Coffee and cookies are served at 3:15 pm in the same room. Anyone is welcome.

Nanoscale Raman Microscopy
Dr. Renee R. Frontiera Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Univ. of Minnesota

This talk will focus on two approaches to nanoscale Raman microscopy, techniques which are capable of monitoring chemical composition and dynamics on nanometer length scales. First, I will focus on the development and implementation of a new Raman microscopy technique, which is capable of probing chemical composition in the 10 nm length scale. This all-optical, label-free technique should have numerous applications in imaging of soft and dynamic materials including biological samples. The technique combines methods from super resolution fluorescence microscopy with stimulated Raman spectroscopy. I’ll discuss our approach to achieving resolution well below the optical diffraction limit, implementation of the new technique, and approaches to reaching resolution on the nanometer length scale. Secondly, I’ll discuss how we use plasmonic nanomaterials, which interact strongly with light and confine it to nanometer length scales, to probe and drive new chemical reactions. We use surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) on ultrafast timescales to monitor reactions in real time. Currently we are investigating the use of these nanomaterials to degrade organic pollutants and turn CO₂ into usable fuels.