Daniel M. Neumark

Research Bio

Professor Neumark and his research group carry out state-of-the-art experiments to probe fundamental problems in chemical physics. The projects in his laboratories encompass (i) reaction dynamics of bimolecular and unimolecular reactions, in which one maps out in detail the potential energy surfaces on which chemistry occurs, (ii) cluster spectroscopy and dynamics, which explore how the properties of matter evolve with size, and (iii) ultrafast x-ray science, where novel femtosecond and attosecond light source initiate and/or probe dynamics in the soft x-ray regime. His research encompasses novel photodetachment experiments on gas phase negative ions, transient absorption and non-linear four-wave mixing experiments with attosecond soft x-ray pulses, molecular beam scattering from flat liquid jets to probe interfacial chemistry and dynamics, and time-resolved photoemission from liquid jets using femtosecond extreme ultraviolet pulses to probe the relaxation dynamics of photoexcited nucleobases and related species. .

Research Expertise and Interest

physical chemistry, molecular structure and dynamics, spectroscopy and dynamics of transition states, radicals, clusters, frequency and time-domain techniques, state-resolved photodissociation, photodetachment of negative ion beams

In the News

What happens when you explode a chemical bond?

UC Berkeley scientists are probing the fleeting steps in rapid photochemical reactions with some of the shortest laser pulses possible today. In this case, a femtosecond pulse of visible light (green) triggers the breakup of iodine monobromide molecules (center), while attosecond XUV laser pulses (blue) take snapshots of the molecules. This allows them to make a movie of the evolution of electronic states (yellow lights around molecules) before the molecules blow apart.

Five Berkeley scientists named to National Academy

The National Academy of Sciences, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious scientific organization, has elected five UC Berkeley faculty members to its ranks, raising the number of members on campus to 143.

Scientists measure speedy electrons in silicon

In semiconductors like silicon, electrons attached to atoms in the crystal lattice can be mobilized into the conduction band by light or voltage. Berkeley scientists have taken snapshots of this very brief band-gap jump and timed it at 450 attoseconds. 

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