 |
 |
PhD position at the University of Amsterdam At the University of Amsterdam, a 4-year PhD position is availabe in the Molecular Photonics group. The PhD research project consists of the development and application of a novel method to measure Vibrational Circular Dichroism (VCD), the infrared circular dichroism due to vibrations of chiral molecules, with sensitivities that surpass those of conventional methods by several orders of magnitude. VCD is one of most powerful structural probes of molecular chirality and structure, but is not very widely applied yet because the signals are generally very small. In this project you will set up and perform experiments in which optical excitation by lasers is used to amplify VCD. We will use optically amplified VCD for studies in several research areas. Firstly, it will give us much faster access to the stereochemistry of important biological and pharmaceutical molecular systems and, equally important, under biologically relevant conditions that hitherto were not possible. Secondly, we will use optical labeling with specific chromophores to probe local structure at specific sites in a molecular system (space-resolved probing of spatial structure). Finally, since both the UV and infrared light lasers are pulsed, the amplification effect allows molecular chirality to be investigated in a time-resolved way. Molecular movies of dynamic processes will thus be recorded with a time resolution ranging from the sub-picosecond to the millisecond regime, providing a time-resolved picture of the dynamics at the molecular level. For this position the required background is a MSc. degree in physics or (physical) chemistry. For further information, please contact: Wybren Jan Buma:[log in to unmask] or Sander Woutersen: [log in to unmask] For the reserach group, see: http://www.science.uva.nl/trvs http://hims.uva.nl/research/research-groups/overview/overview/content/folder/molecular-photonics/molecular-photonics.html To join or leave the molecular-dynamics-news email list, go to: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/molecular-dynamics-news.html