Advances in Spectroscopy: Molecules to Materials

This book presents and discusses recent developments in the broad field of spectroscopy, providing the reader with an updated overview. The main objective is to introduce them to recent innovations and current trends in spectroscopy applied to molecules and materials. The book also brings together experimentalists and theoreticians to highlight the multidimensional aspects of spectroscopy and discuss the latest issues. Accordingly, it provides insights not only into the general goals of spectroscopy, but also into how the various spectroscopic techniques represent a toolbox that can be used to gain a more detailed understanding of molecular systems and complex chemical problems. Besides technical aspects, basic theoretical interpretations of spectroscopic results are also presented.

The spectroscopy techniques discussed include UV-visible absorption spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, IR absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, and time-resolved spectroscopy. In turn, basic tools like lasers and theoretical modeling approaches are also presented. Lastly, applications for the characterization of fundamental properties of molecules (environmental aspects, biomolecules, pharmaceutical drugs, hazardous molecules, etc.) and materials (nanomaterials, nuclear chemistry materials, biomaterials, etc.) are discussed. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for researchers from various branches of science, and presents new techniques that can be applied to their specific problems.

Dr. Dheeraj Kumar Singh received his Ph.D. in Physics from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, India. He was subsequently a CSIR-Nehru postdoc at NCL Pune, NRF postdoc at Seoul, South Korea, and an Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) postdoc fellow in Germany. Dr. Singh was also awarded by the prestigious JSPS Fellowship, Japan, Dr. DS Kothari Postdoc Fellowship, CSIR-SRF, UGC Meritorious Fellowship (RFSMS), etc. Currently, Dr. Singh is working as an Assistant Professor of Physics at IITRAM Ahmedabad. His research is mainly focused on frequency- and time-domain spectroscopy (IR, Raman, UV-visible fluorescence), quantum chemical calculations (ab initio and DFT) for ionic liquids, biomolecules, functionalized nanomaterials, molecular interactions, etc. Dr. Singh received the ECR award from Science and Engineering Research Board, DST, Government of India in 2017. He has published more than 40 research papers in prominent international journals.

Dr. Sourav Dascompleted his master’s degree at the IIT Guwahati, and his Ph.D. at the IIT Kanpur. He was subsequently a postdoctoral fellow in South Korea. His research interests include the areas of coordination chemistry, molecular magnetism, photoluminescence, biomimetic chemistry, and supramolecular chemistry. He is presently serving as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at IITRAM Ahmedabad. He received the ECR award from the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) in 2017, and has published more than 30 research articles in prominent international journals.

Prof. Arnulf Materny received his Ph.D. from the University of Würzburg (JMU), Germany under the supervision of Prof. Wolfgang Kiefer. In 1992, he received his “Dr. rer. nat.” with distinction. He was subsequently a postdoc at Caltech, Pasadena, USA, where he began working in the field of “femtochemistry” in the group led by Nobel Laureate Prof. Ahmed H. Zewail. Currently, Prof. Materny is serving as a Full Professor of Chemical Physics at Jacobs University Bremen, Germany. Prof. Materny has received several awards, including a Kekule Fellowship and the Hoechst Prize for his Ph.D. work, a Faculty Award from the JMU, and a Heisenberg Fellowship from the DFG for his postdoctoral research. He has published more than 200 articles in prominent international journals.