Biochemical analyses of substances rely upon the ability of techniques to identify qualitatively and quantitatively the components present and are based on physicochemical characteristics as well as chemical nature of substances being detected. While chemical analyses usually depend on reactions of a given substance and can be destructive, spectral studies are usually non-destructive and deal w...

Fingerprinting excited nuclear states by γ-ray spectroscopy has been a viable tool to benchmark nuclear models for decades. Since contemporay nuclear structure investigations aim at the study and understanding of very exotic nuclei at the limits of stability and their decay properties, large and thus highly efficient γ-ray spectroscopy instruments are the basis for continued discoveries into th...

Soft X-ray spectroscopy (SXS) techniques such as photoelectron spectroscopy, soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy and X-ray emission spectroscopy are efficient and direct tools to probe electronic structures of materials. Traditionally, these surface sensitive soft X-ray techniques that detect electrons or photons require high vacuum to operate. Many recent in situ instrument developments of thes...

We present a technique for in situ measurement of the vertical and spatial stratigraphic distribution of snow optical grain size with a coupled contact illumination probe and field spectroradiometer. Accurate measurements of optical-equivalent grain size are critical for modeling radiative properties of snow such as spectral albedo and microwave emission. Measurements of the spectral reflectanc...

Vibrational spectroscopy has been successfully used for decades in studies of the atmospheric corrosion processes, mainly to identify the nature of corrosion products but also to quantify their amounts. In this review article, a summary of the main achievements is presented with focus on how the techniques infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy can...

The advantages of lasers over broad-band light sources for spectroscopic measurements have long been recognized. Laser techniques offer the ability to measure the concentrations of trace species in a gas stream in `̀ real time'' with sensitivity and molecular selectivity not possible with broad band spectroscopic techniques. Until recently, the use of laser-based instruments has been largely lim...

Molecular exchange processes are ubiquitous in nature. Here, we introduce a method to analyze by using low-cost, portable, single-sided NMR instruments. The inherent magnetic field inhomogeneity of the instruments is exploited achieve diffusion contrast sites and spatial encoding 2D data. This so-called ultrafast spectroscopy shortens experiment time two four orders magnitude. Furthermore, beca...

Introduction: The absence of organics on Martian surface is a subject that had been studied intensively by many authors for decades. The simplest explanantion for the missing organics used to be that they are constantly delivered to the surface but intense ultraviolet photons transmitting through the thin Martian atmosphere quickly decompose these organics[1]. Recently, influenced in part by th...