Chiroptical spectroscopy GOALI grant awarded to NYU and Hinds Instruments

Hillsboro, OR--Photoelastic modulators (PEMs) and polarization instruments manufacturer Hinds Instruments and New York University (NYU; New York, NY) were awarded an NSF-sponsored Grant Opportunity for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI). The grant, entitled "GOALI: Chiroptical Spectroscopy", will fund the development of an instrument that will determine chiroptical properties of crystals. The instrument design will use four PEMs from Hinds Instruments. Other Hinds Instruments products include polarization modulators, Stokes polarimeters, Mueller matrix polarimeters, MOKE measurement systems and Exicor birefringence measurement systems.

Chiroptical materials have traditionally been measured using a classical interpretation of optical rotation. In fact, the problem is more complicated than previously considered, and requires the measurement of several polarization producing properties, including linear birefringence (LB), linear dichroism (LD), circular birefringence (CB), and circular dichroism (CD). Measurement of the optical activity along a general direction of a crystal requires an understanding of how the combination of LB and LD with CB and CD affect the polarization state of light.

The new four-PEM Mueller matrix polarimeter from Hinds will provide this information. This will generate four polarization modulation frequencies, as well as many other frequencies derived from harmonic and combined frequencies of the PEMs. The demodulation and analysis of all of these many signals will provide much more information than simpler instruments that have been designed in the past. This will allow the determination of all the relevant polarization properties in crystals. Success of the project may enable others to more easily measure the chiroptical properties of molecular crystals and materials which may lead to new understanding in the field.

The principal investigators on the grant are Bart Kahr from the Chemistry Department at New York University and Bob Wang from Hinds Instruments. The grant provides for a postdoctoral fellow, John Freudenthal, to work for the next two years at the Hinds facility in Hillsboro, OR. Freudenthal will receive his PhD at Bart Kahr’s NYU laboratory this autumn. The award will also provide support to Oriol Arteaga from Barcelona, Spain, who will be carrying out complementary work in New York. He brings considerable experience working with PEMs. The award will provide support for frequent exchanges between the academic and industrial laboratories.

SOURCE: Hinds Instruments; www.hindsinstruments.com/2011/09/hinds-instruments-and-new-york-university-lab-collaborate-on-goali-grant/