Techniques

Technique development is an integral part of our science. Many of the questions we pursue require capabilities beyond those available in standard instruments, so we combine carefully selected commercial components with substantial in-house R&D in electron detection, ultrafast light sources, cryogenics, sample manipulation, instrument control, and data analysis. Across successive generations of instrumentation, this approach has extended photoemission into new regimes of momentum, spin, time, space, and pair correlations, complemented by resonant x-ray scattering and computational modeling. This work is inherently collaborative, including long-standing partnerships with David Jones on ultrafast laser sources, Ke Zou on MBE growth and in situ integration, and theory colleagues—Mona Berciu and George Sawatzky—on the spectroscopy and electronic structure of correlated materials. Our goal is not technique development for its own sake, but to create the tools demanded by new scientific questions.