Congratulations To Kevin T. Crampton - Thesis Defense

KEVIN T. CRAMPTON, Graduate Student, is scheduled for his Thesis Defense on Friday, March 9, 2018, 2:00 PM, 2201 Natural Sciences II

Kevin achieved his B.S. in Chemistry in 2011 from Wayne State University, Detroit, where he studied research thermochemistry and kinetics of biological molecules in the gas phase.  He then came to UCI in 2012 to work with under Ara Apkarian's Group.  His initial interests involved designing and executing time-resolved four-wave mixing studies in the condensed phase. Later, he extended these studies to generate the ultrafast analog of single-molecule surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) via nano-scale plasmonic amplifiers. Notably, this work represents one of the first observations of coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering on single molecules in the ambient. It was published in a special issue of J. Phys.Chem C. Most recently, in collaborated with another UCI graduate has been executing single molecule tip-enhanced Raman scattering in ultrahigh vacuum and ultralow temperatures (5 Kelvin). This work has been able to isolate the Raman signatures of single molecules and electric fields of crystal surfaces with atomic resolution. These demonstrations represent the highest spatial resolution achieved to-date in molecular spectroscopy with light and are in preparation for publication. I've presented this work at multiple national and international conferences.

Kevin has designed and constructed over a dozen linear and non-linear optical microscopes and ultrafast laser apparatus for molecular spectroscopy on ensembles and single molecules. 

Kevin has accepted a postdoctoral associate position at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where he will continue his research in nano-optics and ultrafast laser spectroscopy.

Congratulations to a job well done!