Conner Dykstra
Research Scientist - Ultrafast Spectroscopy
Email
Office
036 McPherson Chemical Laboratory
Links
Education
- PhD, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, Chemistry, 2023
- B.S., Northwestern University, Chemistry, 2014
Our ability to convert energy into work of various forms is dictated by the dynamic carrier – carrier and carrier – lattice correlations. Understanding these relationships is critical for advancing next generation light driven technologies, such as solar energy harvesting or data storage. Transient X-ray absorption and (magnetic) circular dichroism gives insight into population and spin dynamics with elemental resolution. When implemented with an Extreme UV source through High Harmonic Generation, the temporal resolution reaches single-digit femtoseconds, illuminating the critical dynamic correlations and leading to tailored next-gen materials.