Helios is a CCD-based
pump-probe transient absorption spectrometer.
It is a complete turn-key system, which comes
with an optical unit and a PC containing the
necessary data acquisition hardware and software.
It is designed to work with an amplified Ti:Sapphire
femtosecond laser (such as Spitfire® Pro, Spectra
Physics*) to produce the spectral and kinetic
data needed for your investigations of photoexcitation
events on the sub-picosecond and longer timescale.
The Helios package is a complete kinetic spectrometry
data acquisition and analysis solution. It will
produce superb data while saving you a great
deal of effort and time.
For more
details and pricing information please
Contact
Us
* Tsunami®,
MaiTai® and Spitfire® are registered
trademarks of Spectra-Physics, Inc.
Spectral Coverage
Helios can be configured
to probe transients in any of the following
spectral regions:
350-750 nm
450-800 nm
800-1600 nm
Spectral Resolution
Helios has intrinsic spectral resolution
of 1.5 nm.
Time Scale
The standard time
window is 3.3 ns
Temporal resolution
The
instrument response function is determined
by the customer’s laser system and
has a typical FWHM of 1.4 times longer
than the laser pulse duration.
Temporal chirp
Helios
employs an all-reflective supercontinuum
generation setup. This results in a very
low temporal chirp of the probe pulse
– ca. 200 fs.
Software
Helios comes with a complete
data acquisition Helios 1.X and data analysis
Surface_Xplorer_Pro
software package. The data acquisition
software allows for experiment automation,
such as preset optical delay step sizes,
averaging time, and time window. Alternatively,
a user can adjust the above parameters
“on the fly” during the data
collection process.
Video Camera assisted
alignment
Halcyone features
a built-in video camera for computer assisted
optical delay stage alignment. In this
mode the gate beam profile is displayed
on the computer
monitor, so that even small
deviations from the optimal position can
be detected and corrected. This feature
allows for easy and extremely precise
control over the spectrometer alignment.
Transient Absorption
Anisotropy
An optional
extension to Helios allows for transient
absorption anisotropy measurements.
Typical noise level
The Helios’ typical noise level corresponds
to 5 seconds of averaging per transient
spectrum and is lower than 0.0002 OD.
Data format
Helios produces a 3-Dimensional
Wavelength-Time-Absorbance data matrix in
a form of an ASCII CSV file, which can be
easily processed with our software.
Footprint
The spectrometer has a
footprint of 26”x38” (660x952
mm)
For more
details and pricing information please
Contact
Us
* Tsunami®,
MaiTai® and Spitfire® are registered
trademarks of Spectra-Physics, Inc.
Helios' unique continuum generation
unit allows for probing the transients
in several spectral regions. Below please
see an example of the data acquired with
Helios equipped with NIR extension.
The sample in the experiment is spheroidene,
open chain carotenoid pigment with 10
conjugated carbon-carbon double bonds.
This molecule appears in light harvesting
complexes (LH) and reaction centers (RC)
of photosynthetic bacteria Rhodobacter
Sphareoides and its photophysics is well
known. In this experiment data are taken
at 77 K with excitation wavelength at
500 nm.
The data example is courtesy of Prof.
Harry A. Frank, Department of Chemistry,
University of Connecticut.
Laser system coupled to Helios: Spitfire®
Pro, OPA-800
C
(Spectra-Physics*)
For more
details and pricing information please
Contact
Us
* Tsunami®,
MaiTai® and Spitfire® are registered
trademarks of Spectra-Physics, Inc.
Click
here to view the Helios video at www.newport.com
Thank you very much for your
outstanding customer care! You guys
are awesome. And so much different
than other companies in this business.
Dr.
Astrid M. Müller
California Institute of Technology
The Helios system has become one of the most requested instruments at the CNM and is usually booked a month or two in advance.
Dr.
David Gosztola
Argonne National Laboratory
Center for Nanoscale Materials.
Gone are the days when you had to
worry about spending months to set
up a transient absorption spectrophotometer
for the femtosecond laser system.
When we decided to purchase a femtosecond
laser system, we approached Ultrafast
Systems for help setting up the transient
absorption instrument. Within a week
of the arrival of the laser, the UFS
engineers came over and set up the
whole system in just one day. The
next day we could already start collecting
data. Since then it has been used
without a hitch. For any new user
it takes only few minutes to get acquainted
with the software.
The Helios spectrometer from Ultrafast
Systems is a state of the art technology
that deserves to be on the bench
top of every photochemist. The pricing
of the whole package is modest and
it is user-friendly. For us, it
was a big saving of manpower and
time. The system is well thought
out. Its simplicity, compactness
and ease of use are some of the
best features that I have ever seen
in any commercial or homebuilt system.
With Helios we are planning to
tackle many issues related to the
charge transfer processes in semiconductor
nanostructures and molecular clusters.
Prof. Prashant Kamat, The Notre Dame Radiation
Laboratory, University of Notre
Dame, IN.
I love it! This is a great product
that I definitely recommend.
Prof. Clemens Burda (on Helios), Case Western
Reserve University.
There were some software bugs,
initially, but the technical support
was more than adequate to keep these
problems from detracting from the
product.
On the scale 1-5 I would rate Helios:
• Reliability: 5
• Quality: 5
• Easy to use: 5
Prof. George N. Gibson, University of Connecticut.
The femtosecond spectrometer
system we obtained from you is terrific,
providing excellent and valuable
data for us. We appreciate that
very much. Because I have many friends
in Japan, I hope that our high evaluation
on your company help your business
in Japan.
Prof. Shunichi Fukuzumi, Department of
Material and Life Science, Osaka
University, Japan .
Both HELIOS and HALCYONE are easy to align even if you are not a big expert so you can save time to collect many data that you can analyze with the support of the very well done software Surface Xplorer Pro.
Moreover technicians are always in contact with you to solve all the problems. Thank you.
Dr. Arianna Barbafina (post doc at Chemistry Department, University of Perugia, ITALY under the supervision of Prof. Fausto Elisei)
