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Experimental physics

A shift in spectroscopy

Nature volume 455, pages 41–43 (2008)Cite this article

Spectroscopic measurement of the energy absorbed or emitted by an object is an invaluable experimental technique. An innovative approach opens the door to the acquisition of previously inaccessible data.

For researchers across the sciences, spectroscopy is the main tool for uncovering the energetic structure of their object of study. These data in turn provide a range of information about the object. The idea is that some quantity or other can be characterized as a function of the frequency of radiation that the object absorbs or emits. Typically, the objects of interest, be they nuclei of complex molecules for study by nuclear magnetic resonance or electrons of unknown substances for optical spectroscopy, are probed by weak electromagnetic radiation over a range of frequencies. The object's response — its absorption of the signal or creation of new radiation — usually leads to a sequence of peaks in frequency (ν) called a line spectrum. The lines reveal energetic information through Planck's formula ΔE = hν, in which the separation between two of the system's energies (ΔE) is related to ν by Planck's constant (h). Work by Berns et al.1, described on page 51 of this issue, shows how this principle can be extended: data gained from information provided by the amplitude of the probe radiation can be used to map large parts of an energy spectrum without changing the radiation frequency.

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Figure 1: Use of avoided energy-level crossing for amplitude spectroscopy.

References

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  1. Frank K. Wilhelm is at the Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada. fwilhelm@iqc.ca ,

    Frank K. Wilhelm

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  1. Frank K. Wilhelm
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Wilhelm, F. A shift in spectroscopy. Nature 455, 41–43 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/455041a

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