- Prof. Dr. Lin X. Chen
This focus course will explain contemporary methods to unravel chemical and biological dynamics in disordered environments, e.g., liquids. Experimentally, femtosecond laser spectroscopies and time-resolved (femtosecond and nanosecond) x-ray tools (spectroscopy, scattering) will be introduced. Scientifically, these methods will be applied to key challenges in the chemical and biological sciences. This focus course comprises four topics listed below:
1. Light-Matter Interactions and Spectroscopy – The lecture gives an overview of the light-matter interaction that comprised the foundation of spectroscopies in different temporal and spectral regimes – brief review of three core ideas of spectroscopy Three important descriptions are used for the radiation/matter interactions: 1) Fermi’s Golden Rule, 2), Density Matrix and 3) Perturbation Approximation.
2. Ultrafast Laser Spectroscopies – Basic concepts of nonlinear optical spectroscopy, pump-probe optical transient absorption, transient grating, transient anisotropy, 2DES, optical Kerr effects, THz spectroscopy
3. Emergence of Ultrafast X-ray Spectroscopy and Scattering – Development of X-ray transient absorption/emission spectroscopy and its potentials, time-resolved solution scattering
4. Structural Dynamics in Chemical and Biological Systems Studied by Ultrafast Optical Spectroscopy and X-ray Methods – fundamental photochemical and photophysical processes – photoactive transition metal complexes – photocatalysis – coherent vibronic processes – dynamic structural evolution of proteins and nucleic acids studied by TRXSS
1.: 28th Oct 2025, 9-12 h
2.: 29th Oct 2025, 9-12 h
3.: 30th Oct 2025, 13-16 h
4.: 4th Nov 2025, 13-16 h
Bldg. 99 (CFEL), SR IV (O1.109)
References:
1. Condensed-Phase Molecular Spectroscopy and Photophysics by Ann Myers Kelley, Wiley (2023) Second Editon.
2. Prof. Andrei Tokmakoff’s lecture notes on time dependent quantum mechanics and spectroscopy; tokmakofflab.uchicago.edu/
3. Jeanne L. McHale, “Molecular Spectroscopy”, Prentice Hall.
4. Abraham Nitzan, “Chemical Dynamics in Condensed Phases”, Oxford.
5. Quantum Chemistry by Prof. Schatz and Prof. Ratner
6. X-ray Absorption and Emission Spectroscopy: Theory and Application Editor(s): Jeroen A. Van Bokhoven, Carlo Lamberti (2016) Wiley. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781118844243 (Free download of the entire book on the publisher’s website).
7. Imaging Atomic Structure and Dynamics with Ultrafast X-ray Scattering, K. J. Gaffney and H. N. Chapman, Science 2007 316, 1444-1448, DOI: 10.1126/science.1135923.
8. Molecular Structural Dynamics Probed by Ultrafast X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy, C. Bressler, M. Chergui, Ann. Rev. Phys. Chem. 61, 263-282 (2010), DOI: 10.1146/annurev.physchem.012809.103353
