Active Projects - FY 2017
New LDRD Projects
Lead Scientist: Simon Bare
The proposed research will initiate the development of new catalysis research infrastructure at SSRL consistent with both the SLAC and SSRL Strategic Plans. Specifically, we will design and implement a combined transmission Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) and X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (XAFS) in situ catalysis cell that is compatible with both the advanced spectroscopy beamline, 6-2/15-2, and the more traditional spectroscopy beamlines at SSRL.
Lead Scientist: Uwe Bergmann
Transition metal complexes are at the center of a wide variety of catalytic reactions involved in biological systems and many important industrial processes. X-ray spectroscopy is a unique and powerful tool to study such catalytic centers and their reaction intermediates, because of its elemental selectivity and sensitivity to changes in the electronic and atomic structure of the metal complexes.
Lead Scientist: Sergio Carbajo
We propose an ultrafast laser source with programmable optical fields capable of driving novel photon-particle interactions. The baseline technology is coherent combination of carrier-envelope phase (CEP)-stable ultrafast fiber technology with individual polarization, phase, delay, and intensity control. The ability to govern the entire 4‑dimensional space of synthesized laser pulses opens a wide range of on-demand laser beam properties using a single source, such as programmable polarization and orbital momentum distribution, transverse mode profile, and pulse-front tilt, among many others.
Lead Scientist: Harold Hwang
Over the past decade, harnessing both spin and charge for spintronics has led to several breakthrough observations, including giant spin currents via spin pumping, the spin Hall effect, quantum spin/anomalous Hall effect, and long spin lifetimes in superconductors. These results are exciting both due to their fundamental new insights into transport processes in solids, and their potential for application in low-dissipation electronics. The majority of these spin-dependent phenomena rely on interactions at interfaces between diverse materials, where couplings often occur on the atomic scale. However, much of this work has used relatively simple materials components, with little command over their assembly.
Lead Scientist: Hemamala Karunadasa
Despite the remarkable rise in efficiencies of solar cells containing the lead-halide perovskite absorber (CH3NH3)PbI3, the toxicity of lead remains a primary concern for the large-scale implementation of this technology, particularly in light of the material’s water solubility. A nontoxic and stable material with similar photophysical properties to the lead-halide perovskites will constitute a major breakthrough in the solar-cell industry.
