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SUMMARY:Snapshots of primary photoinduced events in biomolecules by tunabl
 e few-optical-cycle pulses
DTSTART:20160609T160000
DTEND:20160609T170000
DTSTAMP:20260924T105507Z
UID:0e77e6a76ef287933033e50a2fdd24950e998445e57938870d8077eb
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Giulio Cerullo\nMany light-induced processes in biomolec
 ules\, such as energy relaxation\, energy/charge transfer and conformation
 al changes\, occur on ultrafast timescales\, ranging from 10-14 to 10-13 s
 . The speed of such elementary processes is intimately linked to their eff
 iciency\, making ultrafast optical spectroscopy an invaluable tool for the
 ir investigation. Pump-probe and the emerging multidimensional spectroscop
 ies require short pulses\, in order to observe fast dynamics\, and broad f
 requency tunability\, to excite a system on resonance and probe optical tr
 ansitions occurring at different frequencies. Optical parametric amplifier
 s (OPAs) are ideal tools for such experiments\, because they provide frequ
 ency tunability and support broad gain bandwidths\, enabling the generatio
 n of pulses with duration down to a few optical cycles and tunability from
  the IR to the UV [1].\nIn this talk I will describe a state of the art sy
 stem\, based on two synchronized OPAs\, providing sub-10-fs temporal resol
 ution over a very broad spectral range\, from 300 nm to 2 m. After revi
 ewing the pulse generation and characterization techniques\, I will presen
 t selected examples of applications to the study of ultrafast processes\, 
 such as energy/charge transfer in natural and artificial light-harvesting 
 complexes [2] and the isomerization of rhodopsin which triggers the primar
 y event of vision [3].\n[1] D Brida et al.\, J. Opt. 12\, 013001 (2010).\n
 [2] S.M. Falke et al.\, Science 344\, 1001 (2014).\n[3] D. Polli et al.\, 
 Nature 467\, 440 (2010).
LOCATION:EPFL Valais Wallis - Zeuzier conference room
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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