My latest research paper is out now in Nature Communications. Building this breakthrough spectrometer was the reason that I moved to Durham, so it is really gratifying to see it in print. It’s the culmination of years of work: group leader, Rob Pal described it as a “personal career highlight” in the cover letter! It really has been a great project to work on.
This instrument can record measurements of circularly polarised light emitted from left or right handed molecules in under a second. The older equipment for this was designed in the early 1970s and takes around an hour for the same measurement.
This speed and convenience of our new design is not just handy for chemists investigating the shape of molecules, but it can also be used for advanced "hidden layer" security tagging (e.g. of banknotes or authentic medications) and confocal microscopy of multiple chiral probes inside cells.
The new spectrometer design is also modular, so it can be easily upgraded with new light sources and detectors. It is also capable of time-gated measurements, allowing separation luminescence of lanthanides to be separated from unwanted fluorescent backgrounds generated by organic dyes and tissue.
