Department of Chemistry                   National University of Ireland                  University College Cork                  Cork, Ireland                  Tel: +353-(0)21-4902057                   Fax: +353-(0)21-4276949                  E-mail: a.ruth@ucc.ie

Native German, Albert Ruth, studied at the Technical University in Darmstadt and the University of Göttingen in Germany, where he graduated with a Diplom in Physics. His Ph.D. work at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Göttingen) was concerned with relaxation processes of triplet state molecules in solution at low temperatures. During his time as a Post-Doc with the MPI Göttingen (Germany), FORTH in Crete (Greece) and UCC, A.R. "left the liquid phase" and discovered the beauty of gas phase excitation spectra, in particular of jet-cooled aromatic compounds. In UCC he started to combine jet spectroscopy with the novel cavity ring-down absorption technique. After his return to the Technical University in Berlin A.R. further developed an expertise in ultra-sensitive absorption techniques for which he obtained the 'Habilitation' in Experimental Physics. Since October 1999 he is a College Lecturer in Physical Chemistry again at UCC.

Research Interests

Laser spectroscopy and photophysics of compounds in gas, liquid and solid phases. Current research is directed towards the following topics:
· Applications of cavity ring-down spectroscopy to relevant problems in atmospheric chemistry.
· Radical kinetics and trace gas detection.
· Development of compact instruments for future field experiments.
· Spectroscopy of triplet manifolds in aromatic compounds in seeded supersonic jets.
· Investigation of weak forbidden transitions in large jet-cooled aromatics.

· Formation of noble metal colloids in suspension using laser ablation. 

· Third order nonlinear properties of novel materials, including porphyrins and metal colloids.

Experimental techniques employed are:
· Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy (CRD)

· Diode laser based Cavity Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy (CEA)
· Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) or Phosphorescence (LIP)
· Multi-Photon Excitation (MPE) and Ionization(MPI)

· Z-scan method

· Laser ablation technique

Most recent publications

(1) A.A. Ruth, W.G. Doherty and R.P. Brint; The ¹(pp*)¬ ¹A₁X transition in jet-cooled 4H-pyran-4-thione: Evidence for a low lying second excited singlet state, Chem. Phys. Lett., 352 (2002) 191-201.

(2) A. Dragomir, J.G. McInerny, D.N. Nikogosyan and A.A. Ruth; Two-photon absorption coefficients of several liquids at 264 nm, IEEE J. Quantum Electron., 38 (2002) 31-36.

(3) A. Dragomir, D.N. Nikogosyan, A.A. Ruth, K.A. Zagorul’ko und P.G. Kryukov; Long-period fibre grating    formation with 264 nm femtosecond radiation, Electron. Lett., 38 (2002) 269-271.

(4) A.A. Ruth, T. Fernholz, R.P. Brint and M.W.D. Mansfield; The S₀®T₁ cavity ring-down absorption spectrum of 4H-pyran-4-thione vapour, J. Mol. Spectr., 214 (2002) 80-86.

(5) A.A. Ruth, E.W. Gash, M. Staak and S.E. Fiedler; Multi-Photon UV Photolysis of Naphthalene-Gas Mixtures: A New Gas-Phase Oscillatory System, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 4 (2002) 5217-5220.

(6) R.P. Brint, W.G. Doherty and A.A. Ruth, The phosphorescence excitation spectrum of jet-cooled xanthione in the region of the S₀®T₁ and S₀®S₁ absorption transitions, J. Mol. Spectr. 216 (2002) 151-158.

Modules

CM2008 Structure, Bonding and Quantum Mechanics

CM3003 Symmetry and Spectroscopy

CM3006 Chemical Reactivity

CM3105 Chemical Engineering

CM4002 Photochemistry and Laser Technology

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Last Update: 10-10-2002 / AAR