46966-SE
Photoprocesses in Chemical Systems: New Directions for Photonics Applications, at the 90th Canadian Society for Chemistry Conference, Winnipeg, Manitoba, May 2007
*Use of ACS PRF SE funds* The ACS PRF Type SE award of $ 1,200 (US) was entirely used to reimburse the airline travel of Prof. David L. Andrews from the University of East Anglia, U.K. The total cost of the airline ticket was 799.90 GBP (1,578.38 USD). Prof. Andrews was invited to present a talk at the symposium entitled “Photoprocesses in chemical systems: new directions for photonics applications” at the Canadian Society for Chemistry conference held in Winnipeg, Manitoba from 26th to 30th May, 2007. Prof. David L. Andrews is an internationally renowned leader in quantum electrodynamics theory and its application to a diverse range of optical systems and processes such as optical harmonics, nanophotonics, resonance energy transfer, energy pooling in multichromophore systems, light scattering and fundamental theory. With more than 180 publications and 5 books, including Lasers in Chemistry, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, 1986), Prof. Andrews is one of the forerunners in his field. His research group based at the University of East Anglia has collaborations with groups in Canada, Lithuania, Portugal, New Zealand, and the USA. The attendance of Prof. D. L. Andrews at this symposium provided an extremely valuable opportunity for researchers and students to interact with him and to learn about the recent advances in the powerful quantum electrodynamics approach to optical processes. *Canadian Society for Chemistry conference* This is the largest annual Chemistry meeting in Canada and attracts over 2000 attendees from within Canada and abroad. It is a critical meeting that highlights current research in a comprehensive range of topics in chemistry, fosters interactions and collaborations between researchers and most significantly highlights the accomplishments of students and provides extremely valuable opportunities for their career advancement. Furthermore, CSC 2007 was centrally located in Manitoba and provided convenient access to most Canadian attendees. *Photoprocesses in chemical systems: new directions for photonics applications* This symposium was one of 13 hosted by the Physical, Theoretical and Computational Division of the conference and ran for 3 half-day sessions. Topics of oral presentations ranged from fundamental excitation processes in nanoparticles, photomodulation of liquid crystals, plasmonics, photopolymers, light harvesting materials and nonlinear optical processes. A list of speakers and the titles of their oral presentations is given below: • Excited-State Dynamics of Frechet-Type Dendrimers with a tris-Methyl Viologen Core Myron B.D., Thompson D.W., El-Boubbou K., Ghaddar T. • Solitary Writing: Light Induced Self Inscription in Polymers and Composites Andrews M.P. • Ultrafast Dynamics in Nanoscale Semiconductors Kambhampati P., Sewall S.L., Cooney R.R., Anderson K.E.H., Dias E.A. • New Electrooptical Properties of Doped Liquid Crystals Tong X., Wang G., Zhao Y. • PbS and PbSe Quantum Dots and their Applications van Veggel F.C.J.M. • Periodically Poled Lithium Niobate for All-Optical Signal Processing and New Light Generation Xu C.Q. • Design of Chiral Dopants for Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Photoswitches Lemieux R.P., Roberts J.C., Li L. • Gold Nanoparticle Stacking Mittler S., Rezaee A., Manifar T., Bourke T.C., Aliganga A.K.A. • Surface Plasmon Optical Transmission Sensors Kavanagh K.L., Brolo A.G., Gordon R. • Polarization-Dependent SERS, and an Application in Analytical Chemistry Anema J.R., Brolo A.G. • Nonlinear Optical Phenomena in Polymerisation Systems: From Self-Trapped Beams to Spontaneous Formation of Optical Patterns Saravanamuttu K., Kasala K., Villafranca A., Burgess I.B., Shimmell W.E. • The Photo-Mechanical Effect in Azo Polymers: From Reflectometry to Robots Barrett C.J., Ikeda T. • Moving Heaven and Earth in the Nanoworld: New Interactions of Laser Light Andrews D.L. • Ultrafast Photoinduced Solid State Phase Transitions Probed by Femtosecond Electron Diffraction Ernstorfer R., Harb M., Hebeisen C.T., Dartigalongue T., Jordan R.E., Sciaini G., Miller R.J.D. • The Solvent Effect in Luminescence Energy Transfer and Light Harvesting Scholes G.D., Curutchet C., Mennucci B., Cammi R., Tomasi J., Mirkovic T., Wong C.Y. (cancelled). • Light Harvesting and Carrier Transport in Core/Barrier/Shell Semiconductor Nanocrystals Kambhampati P., Dias E.A., Sewall S.L. Prof. D. L. Andrews’ lecture entitled “Moving Heaven and Earth in the Nanoworld: New Interactions of Laser Light” was especially well received by symposium attendees. The lecture highlighted recent progress made by his group on the theory of photon interactions, which revealed a range of new mechanisms to manipulate molecules and nanoparticles with laser light. For example, it was shown that non-resonant laser light could modify van der Waals forces, which in turn could form the basis for several applications including optical binding. This method could enable the ordering and patterning of particles into arrays and rings. Other applications including optical electrostriction, forces between waveguides and switching were also discussed.
