Y. Ron Shen
University of California, Berkeley
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Primary Section: 33, Applied Physical Sciences Membership Type:
Member
(elected 1995)
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Research Interests
As a laser and condensed matter physicist, I have been interested in laser optics and its applications to material sciences. Our research group has studied various nonlinear optical phenomena, such as how an intense laser pulse propagating in a medium can self-focus and self-broaden in spectral width, how an ultrashort laser pulse can be rectified in a medium into an ultrashort DC pulse, and how a polyatomic molecule can be dissociated by absorbing tens of infrared photons. We have developed new optical techniques for material studies, e.g., wavelength-modulation spectroscopy for probing band structures of solids and diffraction from monolayer gratings for surface diffusion measurements. In more recent years, we have demonstrated that optical second harmonic and sum-frequency generation can be used as a highly surface-specific spectroscopic tool for surface and interface studies. We have found many unique and useful applications of this technique in different disciplines ranging from physics to chemistry to biology. Study of water interfacial structures is an example.
