Publications by authors named "Amanda L Houk"

The speciation of radioactive tritium (T) in a naturally-established subtropical loblolly pine forest that has been irrigated with highly-contaminated pond water for the last 20 years is reported. This irrigation project was created to limit the underground transport of a tritium-rich plume which also contains low levels of toxic organics, metals and radionuclides such as carbon-14 (14C) from a nearby low-level waste burial ground. The levels of tritiated water (HTO) in the wood cores were not influenced by recent irrigation activities.

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Two-photon absorption (2PA) spectroscopy provides complementary, and sometimes more detailed, information about the electronic structure of a molecule relative to one-photon absorption (1PA) spectroscopy. However, our understanding of the 2PA processes is rather limited due to technical difficulties in measuring experimental 2PA spectra and theoretical challenges in computing higher-order molecular properties. This paper examines the 2PA spectroscopy of trans-stilbene, cis-stilbene, and phenanthrene by a combined experimental and theoretical approach.

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Article Synopsis
  • Two-photon activation of the p-hydroxyphenacyl (pHP) protecting group was successfully demonstrated using visible light at 550 nm, marking a first in this area.
  • Strong two-photon transitions were observed near 4.5 eV, similar to one-photon absorption spectra, indicating both methods excite the same state.
  • The findings suggest that pHP can be activated with a range of visible light (500-720 nm), enabling precise control for releasing biologically active compounds when using pulsed lasers.
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The photoisomerization dynamics of trans-stilbene have been well studied in the lowest excited state, but much less is known about the behavior following excitation to higher-lying electronically excited states. This contribution reports a combined study of the spectroscopy and dynamics of two-photon accessible states above S1. Two-photon absorption (2PA) measurements using a broadband pump-probe technique reveal distinct bands near 5.

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