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Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) has been awarded a program from the U.S. Department of Energy to design a transient-grating-based time-resolved circular dichroism module for background-free, wavelength-agnostic investigations of material chirality.

Time-resolved circular dichroism spectroscopy measures changes in chirality, a material property where change often indicates a structural distortion or spin-state transformation. These properties are particularly important in next-generation energy and communication technology, but experimental difficulty has thus far prevented the technique from gaining widespread use. The transient grating methodology developed by PSI provides an accessible platform for these experiments that is broadly adaptable to existing laser instrumentation, while being both more stable and having lower background noise than current laboratory-scale approaches.

PSI’s approach uses two, cross-polarized laser pulses to induce a transient grating in a sample that deflects a third probe pulse if the sample has a circular dichroism response at that wavelength. The lack of any electro-optical devices or bandwidth limiting optics in the transient grating approach allows for a wavelength-agnostic spectrometer aimed at making time-resolved circular dichroism an accessible diagnostic technique for next-generation material characterization.

The commercial application of the transient-grating, time-resolved circular dichroism module stems from the technique’s continued application in measuring the complicated spin-dynamics of advanced material systems. The module will be made versatile enough that continued development will result in a general platform for four-wave mixing techniques with diagnostic capabilities for these novel materials.

For more information, contact:

Dr. Joel Hensley
Vice President, Photonics
hensley@psicorp.com
Physical Sciences Inc.
Telephone: (978) 689-0003