Shen, Yuen-Ron, 1935-

  also known as Ron Shen or Y. Ron Shen
  Professor of Physics, UC Berkeley

homepage  (see below)

Shen Group Home page
(at UC Berkeley)
 
 

http://www.aps.org/praw/isakson/98winner.html

1998 Frank Isakson Prize to
Yuen-Ron Shen
University of California, Berkeley

Citation:
"For his contributions to the basic understanding of the interaction of light with matter, and for his development of novel linear and nonlinear techniques for pioneering studies of semiconductors, liquid crystals, surfaces and interfaces."

Background:
Dr. Shen received his BS degree from the National Taiwan University in 1956 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1963. After a year of postdoctoral work at Harvard, he was appointed to the physics faculty of the University of California at Berkeley where he has been ever since. He has also been associated with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 1966.

Dr. Shen's research interest is in the broad area of interaction of light with matter. He was involved in the early development of nonlinear optics, searching for basic understanding of various nonlinear optical phenomena. He is the author of the book, The Principles of Nonlinear Optics. He has applied nonlinear optics to studies of materials of all phases from gas and liquid to liquid crystal and solid. He has been interested in developing novel linear and nonlinear optical techniques for exploration of new areas of research. In recent years, he has been focusing on the development of surface nonlinear optical spectroscopies and their applications to many neglected, but important, areas of surface science.

Dr. Shen was a Sloan Fellow, a Gugggenheim Fellow, and a Humboldt Awardee. He has received several prestigious awards including the Charles H. Townes Award of the Optical Society of America in 1986, the 1992 Arthur L. Schawlow Prize of the American Physical Society, and the Max Planck Research Prize of the Max Planck Society, Germany in 1996. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences and the Academia Sinica. He also is a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
 
 
 

from UC Berkeley

Yuen Ron Shen

Yuen Ron Shen, professor of physics and principal investigator at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, was honored recently by both the American Physical Society and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Shen received the 1998 Frank Isakson Prize at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society, held in Los Angeles last month.

The Isakson Prize honors outstanding contributions to the field of optical effects in solids, and includes $5,000 and a certificate. It is sponsored by Solid State Communications, published by Elsevier Science, Ltd.

According to the award citation, Shen was selected for his contributions “to the basic understanding of the interaction of light with matter, and for his development of novel linear and nonlinear techniques for pioneering studies of semiconductors, liquid crystals, surfaces and interfaces.”

His research on surface nonlinear optical spectroscopy, described in a paper of the same title, won the Department of Energy’s 1997 Materials Sciences Research Competition in the solid-state physics category.

The annual DOE competition recognizes laboratory scientists for outstanding research.
 
 
 
 

Annual Review of Physical Chemistry
Volume 53, June 2002

STUDIES OF POLYMER SURFACES BY SUM FREQUENCY GENERATION VIBRATIONAL SPECCTROSCOPY, Zhan Chen, Yuen-Ron Shen, Gabor A. Somorjai

Sum-Frequency Vibrational Specctroscopic Studies of Polymer Surfaces and Interfaces, Yuen-Ron Shen
 
 
 
 

Y. Ron Shen
Professor
Condensed Matter Experiment

Ph.D., Harvard University, 1963; Berkeley faculty since 1964; Principal Investigator, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 1967; Member, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, Academia Sinica; Fellow, American Physical Society, & Optical Society of America, Sloan Fellow, 1966-68; Guggenheim Fellow, 1972-73; Miller Professor, 1975, 1981; Alexander von Humboldt Award, 1984; C.H. Townes Award, 1986; A.L. Schawlow Prize, 1992; Max Planck Research Prize, 1996; F. Isakson Prize, 1998; Dept. of Energy Award for Outstanding Scientific Accomplishments in Solid State Physics, 1983, for Sustained Outstanding Research in Solid State Physics, 1987 and for Significant Implications for DOE-Related Technologies, 1997.

Research Interests.

Our group is interested in the basic understanding of light interaction with matter as well as development and applications of modern optical techniques to materials science research. Both theoretical and experimental investigations are being conducted. Recent work is mostly on surfaces and interfaces of liquids, liquid crystals, and solids. The linear and nonlinear optical spectroscopic techniques developed in our laboratory allow us to explore many new areas of research in surface science. These include surface structures of liquids, properties of buried interfaces, in-situ probing of surface reactions, ultrafast surface dynamics, interfacial molecular orientations and conformations, and others. We are also interested in studying novel nonlinear optical phenomena. Examples are nonlinear resonant transient effects, highly nonlinear optical processes in liquid crystals, and infrared-multiphoton-excited luminescence of semiconductor clusters.

Current Projects.

Nonlinear Optical Studies of Liquid Crystals: Surface-induced bulk alignment is a key factor in the design of liquid crystal displays (which constitute 90% of the display industry), but the underlying physical mechanism is still not well understood. Using linear and nonlinear optical probes and theoretical calculations, we now begin to have a good grasp on the problem starting from surface-induced alignment of the first liquid crystal monolayer. Our understanding will help in achieving the goal of designing liquid crystal cells with a preferred bulk alignment. In another project, we are trying to solve the mystery of how 0.1% of dye molecules in liquid crystals can enhance the already huge optical nonlinearity of liquid crystals by another one or two orders of magnitude. The effect may find applications in future optoelectronic devices.

Surface Nonlinear Optical Spectroscopy: We have developed a powerful and versatile surface analytical method based on optical sum-frequency generation. It can be applied to any interface accessible by light, and has many intrinsic advantages over conventional techniques. We are currently employing the technique to explore several new areas of surface science: structures of liquid interfaces, polymer surfaces and chiral surfaces, properties of buried interfaces, surface melting and surface-induced ordering, and in situ probing of reactions on metal and semi-conductor surfaces. These are areas of great importance not only to physics, chemistry, and biology, but also to modern technology. We are further developing the technique to allow double-resonance spectroscopic measurements. This will provide new opportunities to learn more details about surfaces and interfaces.

Ultrafast Phenomena: We have constructed a femtosecond tunable laser system with a widely tuning range in the infrared. It is being used to explore ultrafast surface dynamics, higher-order infrared nonlinear optical effects and novel surface nonlinear optical spectroscopic methods.

Atomic Force Microscopy/Near-Field Optical Microcopy: We are in the process of setting up a combined atomic force microscopy/near-field optical microscopy system. It will be used in connection with nonlinear optical spectroscopy for spectroscopic studies of surface nanostructures and for possible probing of single molecules or clusters.

Selected Publications

Y.R. Shen, "A Few Selected Applications of Surface Nonlinear Optical Spectroscopy," Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93, 12104 (1996).

X. Su, P. Cremer, Y.R. Shen and G.A. Somorjai, "Pressure Dependence (10-10 - 700 Torr) of the Vibrational Spectra of Adsorbed CO on Pt(111) Studied by Sum Frequency Generation," Phys. Rev. Lett . 77, 3858 (1996).

P.S. Cremer, X. Su, Y.R. Shen and G.A. Somorjai, "The Hydrogenation and Dehydrogenation of Isobutene on Pt(111) Monitored by IR-visible Sum Frequency Generation and Gas Chromotography," J. Chem. Soc., Faraday Trans.92 4717 (1996).

R. Muenster, M. Jarasch, X. Zhuang and Y.R. Shen, "Dye-Induced Enhancement of Optical Nonlinearity in Liquids and Liquid Crystals," Phys. Rev. Lett.78, 42 (1997).

P.B. Miranda, V. Pflumio, H. Saijo and Y.R. Shen, "Conformation of Surfactant Monolayers at Solid/Liquid Interfaces," Chem. Phys. Lett. 264, 387 (1997).

D. Kim, I.H. Libon, C. Voelkmann, Y.R. Shen and V. Petrova-Koch, "Multiphoton Photoluminescence from GaN with Tunable Picosecond Pulses," Phys. Rev.B 55, R4907 (1997).

X. Su, P.S. Cremer, Y.R. Shen and G.A. Somorjai, "High Pressure CO Oxidation on Pt(111) Monitored with Infrared-visible Sum Frequency Generation (SFG)," J. Am. Chem. Soc. 119 , 3994 (1997).

Y.R. Shen, "Solutions Made Simple," Science, 276, 1520 (1997).

X. Su, L. Lianos, Y.R. Shen and G.A. Somorjai, "Surface-Induced Ferroelectric Ice on Pt(111), Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 1533 (1998).