Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

Ultrafast lasers provided the ""first light"" in sufficiently short pulses to monitor atomic motion on the relevant timescales; below a millionth of a millionth of a second, to literally catch atoms on the fly as in stop-motion photography. However, the spatial resolution in optical microscopy is limited to about the size of a big virus. This is about ten thousand times too coarse to observe the molecular structure at its finest detail, down to its fundamental building blocks - atoms.Based on the use of ultrashort electron bursts, Sciaini's group at University of Waterloo develops ""atomic-level"" cameras with the temporal and spatial resolutions required to observe atoms in motion. This NSERC-RTI application will provide the PI's group with the necessary funding to build a versatile home designed time-resolved electron diffractometer, which will be part of a state-of-the-art laboratory with focus on ultrafast structural dynamics. This infrastructure funding is crucial to the development of a Femtosecond Electron Diffraction (FED) setup, the main instrument within the PI's group, for which all complementary equipment has been recently purchased. This FED setup is essential to the training of group members and to permitting the investigation of low-dimensional materials and transition-metal complexes in solution phase from an the atomic level of inspection. This multidisciplinary research program will position University of Waterloo among world-class facilities with very limited beam access that have been developed for the study of ultrafast structural dynamics. In addition, the requested infrastructure will sustain and strengthen a large collaborative network that involves several groups and institutes across the country and abroad, and which will help position Canada as a world leader in innovation.