Louis Brus

My research has been in experimental chemical physics and nanoscience, coupled with a strong interest in theory. As a student the 1960s, I studied electronic structure and dynamics of small gas phase molecules. At Bell Laboratories, I worked initially on the electronic relaxation dynamics of small molecules trapped in rare gas matrices near 4 degrees K. I then developed time resolved Raman spectroscopy, and this led to an interest in colloidal metallic and semiconducting nanocrystals. The metallic nanocrystal research led to single molecule SERS and photocatalysis on silver particles. The semiconducting nanocrystal work led to quantum size effects and colloidal core/shell qdot chemical synthesis. At Columbia, I explored optical properties and Rayleigh scattering of single carbon nanotubes, and this led to optical characterization of charge transfer and Raman scattering by molecules adsorbed on few layer graphenes. Most recently, I explored the liquid-like relaxation dynamics of lead halide perovskite crystals at room temperature. The common thread in all this has been trying to understand what the electrons are doing.