Category: Research

Research in the Kittilstved group is focused on developing synthetic methods to prepare novel inorganic materials for renewable-energy applications and spin-based technologies. The materials we study are primarily inorganic semiconductors and related molecular clusters with unique electronic structures that are responsive to external perturbations. We utilize sophisticated spectroscopic techniques including electronic absorption, steady-state and time-resolved luminescence, high-resolution Fourier transform and magneto-optical spectroscopies to investigate these electronic structures.

Our research is supported by the National Science Foundation and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

To date we have acquired a Cary Eclipse luminescence and photoluminescence spectrophotometer, a Cary 50 UV-Vis absorption spectrophotometer, and a Varian 670 FTIR absorption/emission spectrometer equipped with optional beamsplitters (KBr, NIR Quartz, and UV Quartz), light sources (Mid-IR, tungsten, and Xe), and detectors (TE-cooled DLaTGS, InGaAs, Si, and a PMT) to cover the energy range from 0.5 – 5 eV. The FT spectrometer can measure at spectral resolutions of better than 0.01 meV. All of these instruments allow for measurements of single crystals or frozen solutions in an optical cryostat. We also have a custom-built magnetic circular dichroism spectrophotometer that allows for samples to be cooled down to 1.5 K and external magnetic fields up to ±7 T. The CD spectropolarimeter is an OLIS DSM-17 with PMT and InGaAs detectors that extend the instrument from the UV to the NIR (~1600 nm).