News and Events
WCUS is back in action!
3
months, 2 service visits and 1 global pandemic later, #WCUS is back up and running this week, with Daniel @DiamondCDT kicking things off. Thanks to all for the hard work getting there!
Conservation of ultrafast photoprotective mechanisms with increasing molecular complexity in sinapoyl malate derivatives
L.A. Baker, M. Staniforth, A.L. Flourat, F. Allais, V.G. Stavros, Chem. Phys. Chem. 21, 1-7, 2020 [ref]
Insights into the photoprotection mechanism of the UV filter homosalate
E.L. Holt, K.M. Krokidi, M.A.P. Turner, P. Mishra, T.S. Zwier, N.d.N. Rodrigues and V.G. Stavros
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 22 (2020) 15509 [ref]
UV irradiation of Cu-based complexes with aliphatic amine ligands as used in living radical polymerization
E. Liarou, M. Staniforth, J.S. Town, A. Marathianos, M. Grypioti, Y. Li, Y. Chang, S. Efstathiou, E. Hancox, A.M. Wemyss, P. Wilson, B.A. Jones, M. Aljuaid, V.G. Stavros and D.M. Haddleton
Eur. Polym. J., 123 (2020) 109388 [ref]
Warwick Christmas Lectures 2019
As part of the Warwick Christmas Lectures 2019 we held an optics-packed pre-show, featuring demos about some of the weird and wonderful properties of light. Members of the Physics Department and Ultrafast & THz group explained important phenomena like fluorescence, infrared light, polarisation and diffraction and more! The "twangs" of the Department's laser harp helped provide some festive music. There were 1100 members of the public at the lecture, a lot of whom made it to the pre-show science bonanza. On stage James talked about the power of lasers, ably assisted by Edward the Elf (below). Thanks to everyone who helped make the Christmas Lecture on 26th Nov such as success! More pictures here...
Photo © Michelle Tennison
Towards symmetry driven and nature inspired UV filter design
Nature Communications volume 10, Article number: 4748 (2019) [ref]
WCUS collaborates in new anti-cancer work, published in Nature Chemistry
New research published last week in Nature Chemistry demonstrates a novel highly oxidative Ir(iii) photocatalyst, which is phototoxic towards both normoxic and hypoxic cancer cells.This research was a large collaborative project between groups in China, Switzerland, France, and the UK. WCUS contributed time resolved phosphorescence data to the study, which demonstrated an extremely long phosphorescence lifetime of the photocatalyst, thus leading to a very high oxidation turn over number making it a very effective anti-cancer agent.
Congratulations to Daniel on his poster prize
Congratulations to Daniel Coxon on winning first prize in the poster competition at Warwick Chemistry's ChemContext event. Daniel is working on defects in Diamond at the Warwick Centre for Ultrafast Spectroscopy and presented a poster titled "The Crystal Maze".
Thanks for attending the UK THz Workshop
Thanks to everyone who attended the UK THz Workshop last week! We had a packed schedule of talks, over 30 posters, and 100 attendees from across the UK and beyond. Many congratulations to our Poster competition prize winners:
Congratulations to our poster prize winners: Reshma Anamari Mohandas (Leeds) and Peter Karlsen (Exeter) won the postdoc prize; Luana Olivieri (Sussex), Connor Mosley (Warwick), Lucy Hale (UCL) and Matt Reeves (Bath) won the PhD prize.
Nobel Prize Colloquium : Intense Laser Beams
On 24th October a special Departmental Colloquium in the Physics Department commemorated the recent 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Arthur Ashkin, Gerard Mourou and Donna Sutherland. The prize celebrated the trios' "groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics”. Dr Gavin Morley spoke about the invention of optical tweezers, and their widespread adoption and use today. Dr James Lloyd-Hughes described the discovery and principles of chirped-pulse amplification, which is now used worldwide to create incredibly intense laser pulses for laser machining (micromachining and laser eye surgery) and scientific applications.
Chirped pulse amplification is the technique used in WCUS to produce our amplified laser pulses, which we use to perform ultrafast spectroscopy across the electromagnetic spectrum. As an example of the extreme intensity now routinely available, this video shows the focussed laser beam output producing a plasma (white ball, bottom right). The "buzz" on the video is the sound of the laser creating a mini explosion 1000 times per second. In addition to glowing, the plasma acts as a non-linear source of light, hence the blue/white/red glow on the top left. Thanks to Dr Mick Staniforth & Connor Mosley for the video.