MARYVILLE, Mo. – The system they are studying is small, but physicists at Northwest Missouri State University have recently published their research results to an international audience.

Northwest student Dylan Anstine and Dr. Maia Magrakvelidze, a post-doctoral research associate at the University, are lead authors on the article, “Attosecond Structures from the Molecular Cavity in Fullerene Photoemission Time Delay,” with Dr. Himadri Chakraborty, associate professor of physics in Northwest’s Department of Natural Sciences. The article describing the results was published last month in the international journal, Physical Review A.

The article details the team’s research predicting that electrons living at the outer fringe of a fullerene – a nanoparticle that resembles a soccer ball and contains a community of electrons – eject at a greater speed for a systematic selection of photons. With new technology for measuring electrons’ flight times in attoseconds, the research opens opportunities for the study of attophysics metrology with nanoscopic particles and multi-electron forces in various forms of nanomaterials.

Dylan Anstine is a senior from Raymore, Mo., who is majoring in nanoscale science with an emphasis on nanoscale physics. Anstine began conducting research under the supervision of Chakraborty last year and his success at Northwest earned him acceptance this summer into a prestigious, international Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) at the Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France.

The team’s research is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation and continues Chakraborty’s ongoing theoretical and computational nanophysics program. To read the journal article, click here.

Nanoscience is the study of the control of matter on an atomic and molecular scale in relation to structures of 100 nanometers or smaller; nanometer is a billionth of a meter. To learn more about Northwest’s nanoscience program, visit www.nwmissouri.edu/naturalsciences/nano/.