Michael David Fayer

Research involves the development and application of ultrafast non-linear optical and infared methods for the study of complex condensed matter molecular systems. He has developed transient grating techniques to study acoustic wave dynamics in crystals, liquids, and thin films; transport processes in solids, films, gases and flames; and electronic excited state dynamics in solids, liquids and gases. He has created ultrafast photon echo methods and related pulse sequences and used them to study dynamics in crystals and glasses. He initiated the application of ultrafast non-linear optical Kerr effect techniques for the study of dynamics in complex liquids. He pioneered ultrafast infared vibrational echo and related multi-dimensional pulse sequences for studying dynamics of proteins, glasses, and liquids.