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2-Dimensional Phase-sensitive ULtrafast SpEctroScopy: unravelling photo-induced reactions by multi-dimensional Raman

Project description

Innovative Raman setup for advanced spectroscopy

Light-induced reactions encompass a wide range of phenomena, including energy conversion in proteins, UV irradiation photo-damage in skin, and carrier relaxation in optoelectronic devices. However, these and other crucial processes are often hidden by limitations in our equipment and technology. The ERC-funded 2D-PULSES project aims to develop an innovative visible-ultraviolet two-dimensional resonance Raman setup, using phase-sensitive detection technologies to study chemical, biological and physical processes. This advanced Raman system, incorporating a multi-dimensional approach, will enable critical research and provide insights into femtochemistry and femtophysics and their synergistic nuclear motions.

Objective

We propose the construction and development of a visible/ultraviolet (UV) two-dimensional resonance Raman (2DR) setup with phase-sensitive detection to tackle ultrafast Chemical, Physical and Biological processes. Light-induced reactions cover a broad range of phenomena, from screening of photo-damage in skin upon UV irradiation to carrier relaxation in opto-electronic devices and energy conversion in proteins. Their lowest hierarchical level lies in the interplay of nuclear motion and normal mode couplings, such as funnelling the absorbed energy to the solvent via molecular oscillations in nucleobases, electron-phonon/phonon-phonon couplings in graphene, vibrational cooling in hemeproteins. Nature has intricately coupled vibrational degrees of freedom to facilitate light-energy conversion into synergistic nuclear motions, ruling femtochemistry and femtophysics. Conventional spectroscopic methods project structural information along specific normal coordinates, providing limited insights into these coupled motions. 2DR combines the structural sensitivity inherent to the Raman process with a multi-dimensional scheme, yielding frequency correlation spectra that encode information on the vibronic mode couplings across the entire vibrational manifold. Critically, the development of 2DR and its application to light-driven processes has been hindered by technical and conceptual hurdles. Among them: 1) 2DR realizations have been confined to restricted visible regions, while most biomolecules require spectral tunability and/or UV excitations; 2) vibrational signatures recorded by 2DR can be assigned both to vibrational (anharmonic) mode couplings as well as to (harmonic) high-order Raman transitions. The set up of the proposed novel 2DR approach will circumvent these limitations, establishing an interdisciplinary research team toiling over unsolved problems in which the ultrafast and multidimensional facets play a key role.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) ERC-2024-STG

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Host institution

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA LA SAPIENZA
Net EU contribution
€ 1 498 750,00
Address
Piazzale Aldo Moro 5
00185 Roma
Italy
Region
Centro (IT) Lazio Roma
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 1 498 750,00

Beneficiaries (1)