Fall 2012
The PhysTEC Program at UA
There is a critical shortage of qualified high school physics teachers in the U.S., especially in Alabama. The Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) consists of more than 260 colleges and universities that are committed to address this problem. The Department of Physics & Astronomy has just received a 3-year grant from PhysTEC to increase the number and quality of certified physics teachers graduating from UA. Major components of the program are a Teacher-in-Residence (TiR), a Learning Assistant (LA) program, and a partnership with Alabama Science in Motion (ASIM) to provide early teaching experiences.
The Double Chooz neutrino experiment
The Double Chooz neutrino experiment is designed primarily to measure the neutrino mixing angle θ13. We describe the motivation and design of the experiment, review the results from the first year of data taking, and give an overview of plans and prospects.
The age-metallicity relationship of stars in MUGS galaxy simulations
In the early universe there were no heavy elements (“metals”). Generations of stars fused metals in their core and spewed them out into the interstellar medium through supernova explosions and stellar winds, allowing later generations of stars to incorporate more and more metals in their composition. Tracing the evolution of stellar metallicity with age in a galaxy therefore allows us to see the history of how its stars formed. I will present a study of the age-metallicity relation of stars in a simulated galaxy from the MUGS project, which has revealed a wealth of structure not anticipated by simple models, including abundant substructure, a broad age-metallicity distribution, and non-monotonic evolution.
The CMS Experiment and Activities of the CMS Group at UA
The CMS Experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland is well into its third year of data taking. The data are being analyzed to perform detailed studies of the recently observed boson at a mass of 125 GeV, and to actively continue the exploration of the uncharted energy range that the LHC is making available. A brief overview of the CMS experiment and the activities of the CMS group at the University of Alabama is given.
Double Beta Decay: EXO-200 and Beyond
Neutrinos are electrically neutral fundamental constituents of matter. The absence of electrical charge opens the possibility that neutrinos are their own anti-particles or so called Majorana particles, an as of yet unobserved feature of matter. Double beta decay is the rarest known nuclear decay, its hypothetical neutrinoless variety a sensitive probe for lepton number violation and the possible neutrino anti-neutrino identity. The observation of neutrinoless double beta decay would require physics beyond the standard model.
EXO-200 is an experimental search for double beta decay of 136Xe. It recently reported the first observation of two neutrino double beta decay of 136Xe and the most stringent limit on the so called effective Majorana mass of neutrinos. The experiments and its early results will be discussed along with the collaboration’s plans for a larger follow on project.
Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics: Going Forward
Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics (AMOP) is a very broad field with disparate parts. The speaker’s highly personal perspective of the opportunities and pitfalls for academic departments will be presented, along with a more specific discussion of his own research in what has come to be called ‘Terahertz’ physics.
New Insights Into Hydrogen (water) at the Lunar Poles
The Lunar Prospector (LP) and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) orbital neutron spectroscopy datasets represent a unique comprehensive multi-mission lunar resource. A rigorous statistical approach has been used to (re-)analyze neutron data from both missions to provide new details regarding the relationships between the individual detector datasets, as well as a new evaluation of enhanced hydrogen deposits at the lunar poles. Using the multi-mission epithermal neutron dataset we find water ice distributed broadly across the poles, yet showing evidence for a dependence on topographical features. A footprint averaged water equivalent hydrogen (WEH) abundance of 106+/-11 ppm at each pole, with maxima of 131 ppm and 112 ppm at the North and South poles, respectively, is derived from the epithermal neutron data. We also report the first definitive detection of a fast-neutron signature consistent with an enhanced hydrogen hypothesis. These data suggest a highly localized distribution, consistent with Shackleton Crater, corresponding to a footprint averaged WEH abundance of 194+/-11. If confined to this crater this abundance yields a localized deposit of ~0.7% WEH. Details of the analysis approach are presented along with spatial distribution maps showing the intriguing enhanced hydrogen deposits at the lunar poles.
Walking with Paleozoic Tetrapods: An Astronomer’s Journey into Alabama’s Remote Past
For the past 12 years, Prof. Buta has been involved in a remarkable odyssey of rescue, documentation, and study of Paleozoic footprints that have been found in the sedimentary rocks exposed in surface coal mines of Walker County, Alabama. The footprints date back to the Carboniferous period, 313 million years ago, and are significant because they were made by some of the earliest known reptiles. The trails were preserved on a tidal mud flat where a major river once drained into a tropical inland sea. The river carried sediments from the Appalachian Mountains, which had been recently uplifted by the collision of Laurussia with Gondwanaland, forming the supercontinent of Pangaea. The land that later became Alabama was just south of the equator and was partly covered by vast tropical swamp forests populated by strange trees covered with scales and by unusual seed ferns. These forests grew episodically and later became the coal seams that are being mined in Alabama. By the time the first dinosaurs appeared almost 80 Myr later, the world of the Paleozoic tetrapods of Walker County was long gone.
Prof. Buta will describe how he, an extragalactic astronomer, became involved in the study of Paleozoic trace fossils, what it is like to search the spoil piles of a coal mine for the elusive footprints of long dead animals for whom no bones have ever been found, and how the experience has contributed to his development as a scientist and educator.
Acknowledgments: Prof. Buta thanks the Alabama Paleontological Society and local geologists and paleontologists for making this presentation possible.
Cavity-Enhanced Spectroscopic Measurement of Greenhouse Gases
A rigorous understanding of light-matter interactions that involve greenhouse gases (GHGs) is central to physical models and measurements in atmospheric and climate-change science. In recent years there has been concerted effort to develop new ground- and satellite spectrometers designed to measure local and global distributions of GHGs such as CO2, O2, CH4, and H2O. Many of these remote sensing applications require accurate molecular line-by-line parameter data (0.3% relative uncertainties or less) so that GHG absorber concentration profiles can be determined from rotationally resolved observations of light transmission through the atmosphere. Given the extremely long path lengths involved in these observations, the most relevant absorption features are usually weak enough that they do not saturate in the atmosphere, and consequently they are difficult to measure in the laboratory with conventional spectroscopy techniques such as Fourier-Transform Spectroscopy (FTS). In this talk I will discuss important alternatives to FTS that are based on cavity-enhanced spectroscopy (CES) and optical-frequency comb (OFC) technology. These laser-based methods yield ultra-sensitive, high resolution measurements that enable unprecedented levels of sensitivity, precision, accuracy and spectral resolution, thus opening new frontiers in quantitative spectroscopy of atoms and molecules. In particular, I will emphasize frequency-stabilized cavity ring-down spectroscopy, a CES technique recently developed at NIST that has been used to substantially reduce the uncertainty in spectroscopic line parameters and other fundamental physical properties of GHG molecules.
True Color: QCD Measurements with D0 at the Tevatron Collider
The Tevatron Collider at Fermilab, which has recently shut down after taking data for nearly 20 years, leaves a legacy of physics results and a deeper understanding of the fundamental particles and forces. The data have given us a much better understanding of the structure of the proton and of the strong nuclear force described by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). Although each quark and gluon in the nucleus carries a “color” charge, the colors of QCD are never observed directly due to “color confinement,” the fact that quarks are always bound tightly in groups, so that the properties of QCD must be understood by observing objects which have no color. This colloquium will discuss some of the important QCD measurements that have used data from the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. These measurements give insight into the structure of the nucleon and have the potential of discovering physics not described by the standard model of elementary particles and fields. The results will include precise measurements of the inclusive jet cross section, the di-jet cross section, and the inclusive photon production cross section among others.
Through the Looking Glass: Matching Observational Diagnostics with Simulations of Star Formation
Forming stars are difficult to observe directly because they are deeply embedded in dust and gas. To better understand the star formation process and explore key physics, investigators perform large-scale, physically detailed numerical simulations. However, many different simulations that include many different inputs can reproduce a fundamental observational result: the initial mass function of stars. In this talk, I will discuss how I perform and post-process simulations to compare directly with observational metrics such as gas linewidths and protostellar kinematics. I will reflect on what this implies about current simulations and about the nature of star formation.
The Luster of Pt
For centuries, platinum metal has been highly valued for its luster and rarity. With the technological revolution, Pt has found many applications owing to its high chemical inertness and catalytic properties. Recently, electronic properties of Pt have attracted a significant interest for emerging (spin)electronic applications. By passing an electrical current through a device comprised of a bilayer of Pt with a ferromagnet (F), one can modify the dynamic magnetic properties of F with the pure spin current generated in Pt via the spin Hall effect. Devices utilizing spin Hall effect do not require electric current flow through the magnetic layer, thus minimizing heating and electromigration, and allowing one to use dielectric and/or semiconducting magnetic materials. I will describe our recent measurements of spin-current induced effects in Pt/F heterostructures using several techniques including electronic spectroscopy, microfocus Brillouin Light Spectroscopy (mBLS), and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism microscopy. I will show that one can utilize the spin Hall effect to significantly suppress or enhance thermal magnetization fluctuations, modify the dynamical damping rates, induce magnetization auto-oscillations, reverse the magnetization in both uniform and vortex states. Finally, I will describe measurements indicating that not only Pt can affect the properties of the ferromagnet in Pt/F heterostructures, but also the ferromagnet can change the properties of Pt, resulting in an intricate interplay between magnetism and spin transport.
Muon Cooling and Future Muon Facilities
Muon colliders and neutrino factories are attractive options for future facilities aimed at achieving the highest lepton-antilepton collision energies and precision measurements of parameters of the Higgs boson and the neutrino mixing matrix. The performance and cost of these depend sensitively on how well a beam of muons can be cooled. Recent progress in muon cooling design studies and prototype tests nourishes the hope that such facilities can be built during the next decade. The status of the key technologies and their various demonstration experiments will be summarized.
Spring 2013
Ultracold molecules – New frontiers in quantum and chemical physics
Molecules cooled to ultralow temperatures provide fundamental new insights to molecular interaction and reaction dynamics in the quantum regime. In recent years, researchers from various scientific disciplines such as atomic, optical, and condensed matter physics, physical chemistry, and quantum science have joined force to explore many emergent and exciting research topics that are enabled by cold molecules, including cold chemistry, strongly correlated quantum systems, novel quantum phases, and precision measurement.
Complete control of molecular interactions has been an outstanding scientific quest for generations. However, producing a molecular gas at very low entropy and near absolute zero has long been hindered by their complex energy level structure. We have recently developed a number of technical tools to laser cool and magneto-optically trap polar molecules, as well as to cool molecules via evaporation. Another recent experiment has brought polar molecules into the quantum regime, in which ultracold molecular collisions and chemical reactions must be described fully quantum mechanically. We control chemical reaction via quantum statistics of the molecules, along with their long-range and anisotropic dipolar interactions. Further, molecules can be confined in reduced spatial dimensions and their interactions are precisely manipulated via external electric fields. Those efforts serve as an important staging ground to explore strongly interacting and collective quantum effects in an ultracold gas of molecules.
Kepler’s Exoplanets and Astrophysics: What the publications didn’t tell you …
Nearly four years ago, NASA launched a space telescope with the sole purpose of finding exoplanets, planets orbiting other suns. To date, the Kepler mission has discovered nearly 3000 exoplanet candidates, many in multiple planet systems, and hundreds of which are near the size of the Earth. We will explore the wide variety of exoplanets discovered and focus on the most recent and interesting discoveries. Are other worlds like our Earth out there? We will see that the answer is, so far, a strong maybe. We will also discuss Kepler’s paradigm changing results in stellar astrophysics. Kepler photometry is over 100 times the precision of ground-based observations. Combined with its essentially continuous time coverage, these data provide a unique and spectacular data set for astronomy. Some specific examples, near to my heart, will be discussed as well as recent highlights in astrophysics.
RR Lyrae Stars in M31, M32, and M33
I will review some of the recent work on the RR Lyrae populations in M31, M32 and M33. The capabilities of the Hubble Space Telescope and 10-meter class ground-based telescopes have made it possible to reliably identify and characterize RR Lyrae variables in these two galaxies. This is important because RR Lyraes are the ‘Swiss Army knives’ of astronomy in the sense that they have multiple and varied uses for probing the formation and evolution of galaxies. I will describe the diversity of ways that RR Lyraes are useful in this regard and what they reveal about the properties of M31, M32, and M33.
Emergent magnetic properties in hybrid nanostructures: scratching the surface for new physics
Magnetic nanostructures are considered basic building blocks in spintronics and high- density data storage applications. Surface and interface effects in oxide nanoparticle assemblies have been increasingly found to play significant roles in controlling the magnetic properties. Modification of the surface spin structure in magnetic oxide nanoparticles can be achieved by controlling the particle shapes and forming hybrid structures. We discuss how these effects often lead to novel magnetic properties, useful for applications, such as tunable exchange bias (EB) and enhanced magnetocaloric effect (MCE). Exchange bias (EB)-like behavior in magnetic nanoparticles has been observed and reported in a number of systems. However the origin is not well understood and the results have often been misinterpreted in numerous reports in the literature. We have recently done systematic experiments to investigate these intriguing phenomena using a range of probes such as DC and AC magnetometry, RF transverse susceptibility, magnetocaloric effect and small angle neutron scattering (SANS). In this talk we will emphasize the need for systematic experimental studies to understand the origin and physics of magnetism in nanostructures and the correlation between surface anisotropy, freezing of surface and core spins with exchange bias.
Magnetic Thin Films and Multilayers: Fabrication and Analysis
The MINT Center at UA has an assortment of shared vacuum systems for thin film fabrication. These systems are periodically refitted and upgraded to meet users’ needs. After a brief introduction of how these capabilities have changed over the past several years, some examples of research results will be presented. These include measurements of magnetic hysteresis behavior of ferromagnet/antiferromagnet/ferromagnet trilayers, magnetic band structure determinations of epitaxial films, magnetic periodicities in ferromagnet/antiferromagnet multilayers, and domain structures in helical antiferromagnetic multilayers.
Constraining Cosmological Models with Massive Galaxy Clusters
Clusters of galaxies are among the most energetic persistent sources in the extragalactic sky, and observations of their properties and evolution provide multiple, complementary probes of cosmology. I will describe recent work on two of these cosmological tests: the first providing measurements of the cosmic expansion and its acceleration, and the second using clusters to trace the growth of structure in the Universe. These techniques have provided strong, independent confirmation of the concordance model, in which the dynamics of the present-day Universe are dominated by a cosmological constant and cold dark matter, with constraints on dark energy properties that are competitive with yet highly complementary to those from other probes. Measurements of the growth of structure enable a number of additional tests of fundamental physics, placing limits on the species-summed neutrino mass, modifications of General Relativity, and departures from single-field inflation. With recent improvements in the quality and analysis of gravitational lensing data, a growing body of multi-wavelength observations, and several ambitious cluster surveys either ongoing or on the horizon, clusters are poised to deliver even more powerful cosmological results.
Exploration of Magnetic Crystals: Macroscopic Investigation to Topographical Nanoengineering
The energetic interplay in magnetic crystal dictates the fundamental properties of a broad range of magnetic materials, for instance the quantum critical fluctuations in strongly correlated electron system. My research efforts involve dual approaches where the macroscopic investigations of candidate materials in bulk are used as guide to create prototype system of the artificial magnetic crystal via periodic nanoscale confinement. First part of my talk will discuss the details of macroscopic investigation of underlying magnetic crystal in an archetypal heavy electron superconductor CeCu2Ge2, where the critical spin fluctuations of the antiferromagnetic spin density wave order was found to dominate the local fluctuations due to single-site Kondo effect. In second part, I will show that the artificial magnetic crystal, created using topographical nanoengineering, helps us develop a new research arena, which enables exploration of the energetic interplay and associated physics that are ordinarily found in bulk materials of strongly correlated electron systems. I will summarize the talk with a synopsis of future research, which aims to explore and understand recently discovered anomalous coupling between the giant thermal hysteresis and the magnetoresistance oscillation in slightly modified topographical nanoengineered material with strong implication to the spin (magnetic) caloritronics devices.
Charge transport and dynamics in nanomaterials and their interfaces
Carrier transport and dynamics in nanomaterials and thin films are both of fundamental interest and of importance for the development of efficient optoelectronic and energy conversion devices. Among nanomaterials, graphene and graphene-based heterostructures are promising nanoscale systems because of excellent electronic and optical properties of graphene. To study transport properties by measuring photoconductivity of these materials, however, is often hindered by the complication of making contacts to nanoscale objects. Furthermore, sub-picosecond (sub-ps) to nanosecond (ns) carrier dynamics plays an important role in efficient charge separation, transport, and relaxation processes. As I will discuss in this talk, time-resolved THz spectroscopy (TRTS) provides a powerful ultrafast, non-contact electrical probe capable of measuring the photoconductivity in broad range of material systems. In particular, I will describe our recent progress in applying this approach to probe of charge transport properties and photoinduced carrier dynamics in graphene, at the C60/graphene interface, and films of the semi-metal bismuth.
The Higgs Boson – Latest Results from the Large Hadron Collider
The Higgs boson was proposed in 1964 and is the final and key undiscovered particle in the Standard Model of particle physics. The Higgs has been searched for actively for more than 30 years. On July 4, 2012, the massive CMS and ATLAS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN announced the observation of a new boson with a mass of 125 GeV whose properties were consistent with the Higgs. In this talk, I will present a brief history of searches for the Higgs boson and then discuss the latest experimental results on the 125 GeV boson. I will focus on the results from CMS experiment including some details of the experimental challenges, but will include the most recent measurements from ATLAS as well. I will discuss how close we are to determining whether or not the new boson is the Higgs boson or something else.
The Impact of Secular Features on the Evolution of Disk Galaxies
The role of secular features, such as stellar bars, in driving the evolution of galaxies is still uncertain. The fraction of barred galaxies, both in the local and high redshift universe, is highly debated as well as their role in building bulges, triggering star formation and active galactic nuclei (AGN), as well as modulating metallicity gradients within galaxies. In this talk, I will present some recent results from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), and HST COSMOS survey to address these issues. I will contrast the importance of secular processes with galaxy mergers, which represents a fundamental building block in the hierarchical picture of galaxy formation.
Tuning Electrical and Optical Properties of 2D Atomic Crystals
Two-dimensional (2D) atomic crystals are recently discovered materials that are only atoms thick, and yet can span laterally over millimeters. The diverse family of such materials includes graphene, a semimetal with massless relativistic charge carriers, and monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), a direct band gap semiconductor with strong spin-orbit interaction. Since every atom in these materials belongs to the surface, their physical properties are greatly affected by the immediate microenvironment.
In my talk, I will demonstrate the wide tunability of the electrical and optical properties of both graphene and MoS2 and discuss some novel device applications. In the first part of the talk, I will demonstrate the use of graphene field effect transistors (FETs) in sensing different physical parameters of nanometer-thick interfacial liquid volumes. I will demonstrate sensing of local liquid dielectric constant, mass flow velocity – with sensitivity 70nL/min, and ion concentration with sensitivity as low as 40 nM. I will also show that charge carrier scattering in graphene can be efficiently suppressed by placing graphene into a liquid environment. Overall, our results highlight the usefulness of graphene FETs for applications in ultra-precise fluidic sensing and as a potential replacement for silicon in next generation transistors.
In the second part of my talk, I will focus on mononalyer MoS2 and demonstrate that its optical properties, fluorescence quantum yield and transparency, can be tuned via electrical gating. In particular, we have observed a hundredfold modulation of excitonic photoluminescence from MoS2 at room temperature by varying the electric fields within ±1.7 MV/cm. Our findings demonstrate that MoS2 is the thinnest possible electroactive material and suggest the possibility of diverse applications ranging from nanoscale electro-optical modulators to quantum computing based on the spin degree of freedom.
Understanding Galaxy Evolution with Massive Starburst Galaxies
We are constantly intrigued by how dramatically galaxies evolve when we probe closer to the cosmic dawn. Ten billion years ago, galaxies were forming stars ten times more fiercely than they do today. This phenomenon can be understood in the framework of cold dark matter simulations only if star formation is suppressed in massive dark matter halos. However, the physical mechanisms responsible for the suppression are unclear. Starburst galaxies in massive halos offer a unique laboratory to constrain the suppression processes, because, unlike most galaxies, such processes have apparently failed to operate in these starbursts. Thanks to the Herschel Space Telescope, for the first time we have identified a sample of gravitationally lensed massive starbursts at the peak epoch of cosmic star formation. I will show how high-resolution multi-phase observations in combination with gravitational lensing have helped us gain a comprehensive understanding of these unusual galaxies. I will also describe future projects aimed at constraining the star formation history and the halo-scale gas supply of such massive starbursts. By contrasting with normal galaxies, the results of these studies will be fundamental to a physical understanding of galaxy evolution. Finally, I will present my vision of this field with future ground- and space-based observatories.
Galaxy Evolution in the Thermal Era
Technological advances in ground- and space-based observatories now allow routine observations of protogalaxies to within 1 Gyr of the Big Bang. But most of the present-day stellar mass, along with the familiar pattern of spiral and elliptical galaxies we see in the nearby universe, in fact emerged in the latter 10 Gyr of the Universe. Between 0<z<2, a period which I’ve termed the “thermal era,” the cosmic baryons have become increasingly locked up in million-degree intergalactic gas and bound, dynamically “hot” structures like elliptical galaxies and galaxy clusters. Here I will present some of our ongoing efforts (employing both large surveys and targeted programs) to trace out the dramatic evolution of galaxies in the thermal era, quantify the rise of large-scale structures, and directly probe the physical mechanisms behind this evolution.
Studying baryon physics with galaxy groups and clusters
Most of the cosmic baryons are not locked in stars. Understanding the properties and underlying cause of baryons that are not locked into stars will shed light on the formation of galaxies, which only account for ~10% of baryons. Galaxy groups and clusters are the only systems where the bulk of the baryons have been detected. This makes them great objects to study baryon physics, such as cooling, star formation, heating from supermassive black holes and galactic winds. Moreover, a better understanding of these baryon processes is also important for cluster cosmology. In this talk, I will discuss several topics related to the study of baryon physics in groups and clusters, including halo gas/baryon fraction, cool core and AGN heating, ram pressure and star formation in the stripped gas.
From new materials to devices for the future: the interface matters
Advances made in fabricating thin-film materials with atomic-level control have provided researchers unprecedented access to investigate new physics and functionalities. The rapid development in the field of spintronics is largely a consequence of such improvements. Complex materials can move these areas into newer directions. The intricate interplay between charge, spin, lattice and orbital degrees of freedom in complex materials offer exciting opportunities which impact both fundamental and technological areas. After a brief introduction to complex materials, I shall provide two examples of my research on thin-film materials and heterostructures. First is a functional spintronic device showing giant tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) effect, where huge changes in electrical resistance is achieved by applying a small, external magnetic field. The novel mechanism that helps realize such high TMR values is understood in terms of a symmetry filtering effect through a crystalline tunnel barrier ((001) oriented MgO, for example), where wavefunctions of certain symmetries are transmitted preferentially. First theorized by Butler et al. in 2001 it received emphatic experimental verification within a few years, which includes my graduate group. This effect is now being used as the read head sensor in hard drives. In principle, a similar functionality is achieved by using a single material which is both magnetic and insulating. Such are magnetic insulators, many of which are found in transition metal oxides. The unique nature of these materials also makes them suitable for applications in other, newer areas. In the next part of my talk, I shall focus on my work which combines high quality thin-film growth, optical absorption spectroscopy and electronic structure investigations on a high Curie temperature magnetic oxide in the spinel family (NiFe2O4, NFO). Spectroscopic measurements on atomically-flat, epitaxial thin films reveal that NFO is an indirect band gap material with a gap hierarchy which emanates from its dispersionless band structure. The band gap value also has a good overlap with the solar spectrum. I shall conclude with my future research plans.
Optical Spectroscopy and Phonon Self-Energy Renormalizations in Carbon Materials
For over two decades, carbon-based materials have been the focus of intense research, accumulating two Nobel prizes (fullerenes-1996 and graphene-2010) and an uncountable number of solutions that aim, almost always, technological applications in the nanometer scale such as solar cells, transistors and gas sensors. In this colloquium, I will discuss my recent contributions to the development of basic research in carbon materials. More specifically, I will explain how optical spectroscopy can be merged with electronic devices to probe basic properties of carbon materials which are tightly related to electron, phonons as well as their mutual interactions. A discussion about phonon self-energy renormalizations in single and double layer graphene involving phonons with zero momentum (q = 0) and non-zero momentum (q ≠ 0) will be addressed by showing that they have opposite behaviors with changing the graphene’s Fermi level energy EF. These different behaviors exhibited by q = 0 and q ≠ 0 phonons serve as a new and efficient tool to assign phonons, combination of phonons and phonon overtones. Finally, I will address some topics related to my work on the development of new carbon materials and give my perspectives on the next steps of my research, which includes Near-Field spectroscopy.