Stephen Bialkowski Research Research Interests Photothermal Spectroscopy Application of novel optical methods of chemical analysis is the main research topic of this laboratory. New ways to perform photothermal spectroscopy in homogeneous and heterogeneous media are being studied. Nonlinear optical absorption effects found to occur in the analysis of gaseous and condensed phase samples are used to increase analytical information, and facilitate excited state energy transfer, relaxation kinetics, and excited state absorption cross section determinations. These intrinsically nonlinear systems are not reversible on the measurement time scales, adding to analysis complexity.
Analysis is possible using an integrated computer acquisition and data analysis approach.
Several tools, including smart, optical and digital filter based data collection, symbolic language processors, spreadsheets, and regression software, are integrated to allow rapid data analysis and model testing. For a short list of photothermal and photoacoustic related WWWeb sites of mostly tutorial material click here . In related experiments, conventional white light sources are used to excite photothermal signal response in homogeneous samples. The photothermal signal is a secondary effect, generated by the absorption of power or energy from the excitation light source. It is found that the white light source can result in signal generation, independent of the absorption spectrum.