Lev Chuntonov

Postdoc: Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, 2012-2014

Postdoc: Department of Chemical Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, 2009-2012

PhD: Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Technion – ITT, 2009

BSc: Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Technion – ITT, 2004

Nano Main Field:  we aim to employ state of the art multi-dimensional femtosecond vibrational spectroscopy to study solvation dynamics and excitation transfer in molecules on nanostructures. One example is surface molecules in functionalized nanoparticles and nanoparticle constructs such as dimers, trimers, etc. Detailed understanding of the constrains imposed by nanoparticles’ surface on the molecular dynamics in these systems is highly important for applications in surface‐enhanced spectroscopy, nano‐optics, imaging, bio‐sensing, drug‐delivery, heterogeneous catalysis, since it determines the chemical, physical, and spectroscopic properties of the nanoparticle systems. Another example involves molecular dynamics in nano-confined environment of biomolecules such as protein pockets and DNA grooves. These studies are important for understanding of drug binding interactions and for nano- and molecular-device engineering, where DNA is extensively used as a versatile tool.

Research interests: two-dimensional femtosecond infrared spectroscopy (2D-IR), solvation dynamics, vibrational excitation transfer, plasmonic molecules, single-molecule surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy