A Postdoc and a Ph.D. studentship positions are available at the Department of Chemical Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, in the group of Professor Yehiam Prior, working on Femtosecond Nonlinear optical spectroscopy.
>From the early days of the introduction of lasers into chemistry, the dream was to use
them as magic wands, enabling ''mode and bond selective chemistry''. Early attempts
to prepare molecules for selective reactions by nanosecond lasers have failed, mostly
due to intra and inter molecular interactions. By the end of a nanosecond pulse, while
the molecule may indeed be excited to the desired state, its energy is more or less
evenly distributed to all energetically accessible states, so that no selectivity is
possible. The introduction of much shorter laser pulses of sub picosecond duration
has changed this situation, a whole new field of Femtochemistry has emerged, and
ultrashort laser pulses are routinely used for the preparation and study of various
transient states.
Recently we have initiated a new approach to this problem. We have demonstrated an
optimization method for the delay between two pulses in a pump dump scheme for the
preparation of molecules high in the ground state, and have used CARS
(Coherent AntiStokes Raman Scattering) to monitor these wavepackets. We are
planning to develop the method further, extend the results to larger molecules, prepare
well defined wavepackets even higher in the ground state, and actually perform
chemically meaningful experiments with these molecules. Presently we are setting up
pulse shaping capabilities and a more sophisticated detection schemes which will
enable us to study coherent processes in liquids, look at decoherence processes, and
move towards the demonstration of selective response of a chemical reaction to
specific preparation.
The optimal candidate should have hands on experience with femtosecond laser
systems, be familiar with nonlinear optical techniques such as Raman, Four Wave
Mixing and CARS, and should have experience with computerized data acquisition.
Further information about our work may be found at www.weizmann.ac.il/~prior
Further information about postdoctoral fellowships at the Weizmann Institute of Science may be found at http://www.weizmann.ac.il/feinberg/postdoc_fell.shtml
If interested, contact me directly at the email address given below.
Yehiam Prior
Department of Chemical Physics
Weizmann Institute of Science
Rehovot, Israel 76100
Phone 972-8-934-4008
Fax 972-8-934-4126
email [log in to unmask]
URL http://www.weizmann.ac.il/~prior
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