Ultrafast Spectroscopy: Quantum Information and Wavepackets (IOP Expanding Physics) - Hardcover

Alan Aspuru-Guzik; Joel Yuen-Zhou; Jacob J. Krich

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0750310634 ISBN 13: 9780750310635

Publisher: Institute of Physics Publishing, 2014

Synopsis

This book provides a self-contained introduction to quantum process tomography and nonlinear spectroscopy, which underlie the study of excited state dynamics in molecular aggregates, such as photosynthetic complexes.

About this title

About the Authors

Alán Aspuru-Guzik is a Professor at Harvard University in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. He received his doctoral degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and was the recipient of the 35 Innovators under 35 by MIT Technology Review for his contributions to the intersection of quantum information and quantum chemistry. In this context, he is interested in how chemical experiments such as ultrafast spectroscopy can be interpreted using ideas from quantum information. More about his work can be found on his home page, http: //aspuru.chem.harvard.edu.

Joel Yuen-Zhou is currently the Robert J. Silbey Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center of Excitonics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received a BSc in Chemistry and Mathematics from the same school in 2007 and a PhD in Chemical Physics from Harvard University in 2012. His research interests are broadly located in the realm of quantum dynamics, specializing in nonlinear spectroscopy, quantum information, time-dependent density functional theory, and topological phases of matter.

From the Back Cover

The applications of nonlinear ultrafast spectroscopy are numerous and widespread, and it is an established and indispensable technique for revealing ultrafast processes in modern material, chemical and biochemical research. Unfortunately, it is also a topic that can be daunting to those meeting it for the first time. Assuming just an understanding of quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics, and making use of many worked examples and accompanied by MATLAB^(R) codes for numerical simulations of spectra, this book delivers a practical and intuitive introduction to the subject for advanced students and researchers. It will also be useful for practitioners, who are already familiar with the subject, but who want to develop a more conceptual understanding.

In this clear text, experienced practitioners present a simple and conceptually intuitive overview of ultrafast nonlinear spectroscopy using the formalism of quantum processes and wavepacket dynamics. Using this unified framework, the authors provide the reader with simple analytical models, examples and concepts to understand the workings of nonlinear spectroscopy through a pedagogical and physically intuitive approach. The core of the book is the section on pump-probe spectroscopy, as on understanding its mathematical description, more complex and multidimensional spectroscopies become easily understood derivatives.

Readers, once familiar with the material in this text, will be fully equipped with the tools to devise and undertake well reasoned spectroscopic experiments.

From the Inside Flap

The applications of nonlinear ultrafast spectroscopy are numerous and widespread, and it is an established and indispensable technique for revealing ultrafast processes in modern material, chemical and biochemical research. Unfortunately, it is also a topic that can be daunting to those meeting it for the first time. Assuming just an understanding of quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics, and making use of many worked examples and accompanied by MATLAB^® codes for numerical simulations of spectra, this book delivers a practical and intuitive introduction to the subject for advanced students and researchers. It will also be useful for practitioners, who are already familiar with the subject, but who want to develop a more conceptual understanding.

In this clear text, experienced practitioners present a simple and conceptually intuitive overview of ultrafast nonlinear spectroscopy using the formalism of quantum processes and wavepacket dynamics. Using this unified framework, the authors provide the reader with simple analytical models, examples and concepts to understand the workings of nonlinear spectroscopy through a pedagogical and physically intuitive approach. The core of the book is the section on pump-probe spectroscopy, as on understanding its mathematical description, more complex and multidimensional spectroscopies become easily understood derivatives.

Readers, once familiar with the material in this text, will be fully equipped with the tools to devise and undertake well reasoned spectroscopic experiments.

Edition details

• Publisher: Institute of Physics Publishing
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0750310634
• ISBN 13: 9780750310635
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 130