Molecular and Nano-Material Architectures

Facilities

The group is responsible for managing the synthetic and analytical laboratories for the Institute. There are four state-of-the-art laboratories: organic, analytical, inorganic and organometallic, which are maintained by highly skilled technical officers.

Instrumentation is available for spectroscopic investigations over a wide range of wavelengths from the microwave to vacuum ultraviolet regions. This includes pulsed and continuous laser sources, high resolution Fourier transform spectrometers, long-path gas cells, supersonic jets, together with dedicated spectrometers for REMPI, ZEKE, and other related ion/electron techniques.

Far Infrared Beamline at the Canadian Light Source

The spectroscopy program is contributing to the far infrared (FIR) beamline at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron facility in Saskatoon. It will be equipped with a large Fourier transform spectrometer for ultra-high spectral resolution (25 MHz) gas-phase studies, as well as for high spatial resolution condensed-phase studies (high pressure samples, microstructures, surfaces, and interfaces). Spectroscopy in the FIR region has been particularly difficult due to the lack of practical tunable lasers, the weakness of thermal sources, and the fact that detectors are swamped with unwanted room-temperature photons. Synchrotron radiation provides a high-brightness infrared continuum with a potential gain of 2 to 3 orders of magnitude in signal strength.