Coherent Multidimensional Spectroscopy Of Dilute Gas Phase Nanosystems

This landmark collective work introduces the physical, chemical, and biological principles underlying photosynthesis: light absorption, excitation energy transfer, and charge separation. It begins with an introduction to properties of various pigments, and the pigment proteins in plant, algae, and bacterial systems. It addresses the underlying physics of light harvesting and key spectroscopic methods, including data analysis. It discusses assembly of the natural system, its energy transfer properties, and regulatory mechanisms. It also addresses light-harvesting in artificial systems and the impact of photosynthesis on our environment. The chapter authors are amongst the field’s world recognized experts. Chapters are divided into five main parts, the first focused on pigments, their properties and biosynthesis, and the second section looking at photosynthetic proteins, including light harvesting in higher plants, algae, cyanobacteria, and green bacteria. The third part turns to energy transfer and electron transport, discussing modeling approaches, quantum aspects, photoinduced electron transfer, and redox potential modulation, followed by a section on experimental spectroscopy in light harvesting research. The concluding final section includes chapters on artificial photosynthesis, with topics such as use of cyanobacteria and algae for sustainable energy production. Robert Croce is Head of the Biophysics Group and full professor in biophysics of photosynthesis/energy at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. Rienk van Grondelle is full professor at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. Herbert van Amerongen is full professor of biophysics in the Department of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences at Wageningen University, where he is also director of the MicroSpectroscopy Research Facility. Ivo van Stokkum is associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Sciences, at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.

The technological means now exists for approaching the fundamentallimiting scales of solid state electronics in which a single carrier can, in principle, represent a single bit in an information flow. In this light, the prospect of chemically, or biologically, engineered molccular-scale structures which might support information processing functions has enticed workers for many years. The one common factor in all suggested molecular switches, ranging from the experimentally feasible proton-tunneling structure, to natural systems such as the micro-tubule, is that each proposed structure deals with individual information carrying entities. Whereas this future molecular electronics faces enormous technical challenges, the same Iimit is already appearing in existing semiconducting quantum wires and small tunneling structures, both superconducting and normal meta! devices, in which the motion of a single eh arge through the tunneling barrier can produce a sufficient voltage change to cut-off further tunneling current. We may compare the above situation with today's Si microelectronics, where each bit is encoded as a very !arge number, not necessarily fixed, of electrons within acharge pulse. The associated reservoirs and sinks of charge carriers may be profitably tapped and manipulated to proviele macro-currents which can be readily amplified or curtailed. On the other band, modern semiconductor ULSI has progressed by adopting a linear scaling principle to the down-sizing of individual semiconductor devices.

This open access book, published in the Soft and Biological Matter series, presents an introduction to selected research topics in the broad field of flowing matter, including the dynamics of fluids with a complex internal structure -from nematic fluids to soft glasses- as well as active matter and turbulent phenomena. Flowing matter is a subject at the crossroads between physics, mathematics, chemistry, engineering, biology and earth sciences, and relies on a multidisciplinary approach to describe the emergence of the macroscopic behaviours in a system from the coordinated dynamics of its microscopic constituents. Depending on the microscopic interactions, an assembly of molecules or of mesoscopic particles can flow like a simple Newtonian fluid, deform elastically like a solid or behave in a complex manner. When the internal constituents are active, as for biological entities, one generally observes complex large-scale collective motions. Phenomenology is further complicated by the invariable tendency of fluids to display chaos at the large scales or when stirred strongly enough. This volume presents several research topics that address these phenomena encompassing the traditional micro-, meso-, and macro-scales descriptions, and contributes to our understanding of the fundamentals of flowing matter. This book is the legacy of the COST Action MP1305 “Flowing Matter”.

The first book to summarize the applications of CAFM as the most important method in the study of electronic properties of materials and devices at the nanoscale. To provide a global perspective, the chapters are written by leading researchers and application scientists from all over the world and cover novel strategies, configurations and setups where new information will be obtained with the help of CAFM. With its substantial content and logical structure, this is a valuable reference for researchers working with CAFM or planning to use it in their own fields of research.

2D infrared (IR) spectroscopy is a cutting-edge technique, with applications in subjects as diverse as the energy sciences, biophysics and physical chemistry. This book introduces the essential concepts of 2D IR spectroscopy step-by-step to build an intuitive and in-depth understanding of the method. This unique book introduces the mathematical formalism in a simple manner, examines the design considerations for implementing the methods in the laboratory, and contains working computer code to simulate 2D IR spectra and exercises to illustrate involved concepts. Readers will learn how to accurately interpret 2D IR spectra, design their own spectrometer and invent their own pulse sequences. It is an excellent starting point for graduate students and researchers new to this exciting field. Computer codes and answers to the exercises can be downloaded from the authors' website, available at www.cambridge.org/9781107000056.

The purpose of this book is to provide a theoretical foundation and an understanding of atomistic spin-dynamics (ASD), and to give examples of where the atomistic Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation can and should be used. As argued in the text, a description of magnetism in an atomistic way is very natural and allows for an interpretation of experimental results in a clear and deep way. This description also allows for calculations, from first principles, of all parameters needed to perform the spin-dynamics simulations, without using experimental results as input to the simulations. As shown in the book, we are now at a very exciting situation, where it is possible to perform accurate and efficient atomistic simulations on a length- and time-scale which is balancing on the edge of what is experimentally possible. In this way, ASD simulations can both validate and be validated by state-of-the art experiments, and ASD simulations also have the possibility to act as a predictive tool that is able to explain the magnetization dynamics in experimentally inaccessible situations. The purpose of this book has been to communicate technically relevant concepts. An even larger motivation is to communicate an inspiration to magnetism and magnetization dynamics, and the emerging technological fields that one may foresee, e.g. in magnonics, solitonics and skyrmionics.

Advances in the Theory of Atomic and Molecular Systems, is a collection of contributions presenting recent theoretical and computational developments that provide new insights into the structure, properties, and behavior of a variety of atomic and molecular systems. This volume (subtitled “Dynamics, Spectroscopy, Clusters, and Nanostructures”) deals with the topics of “Quantum Dynamics and Spectroscopy”, “Complexes and Clusters”, and “Nanostructures and Complex Systems”. This volume is an invaluable resource for faculty, graduate students, and researchers interested in theoretical and computational chemistry and physics, physical chemistry and chemical physics, molecular spectroscopy, and related areas of science and engineering.