Ultrafast terahertz nanoscopy laboratory
Imaging the femtosecond dynamics of electrons in atoms, molecules, and solids
New Paper
"Temperature-Dependent Recombination Dynamics of Photocarriers in CsPbBr3 Microcrystals Revealed by Ultrafast Terahertz Spectroscopy" is published in Advanced Optical Materials in September 2024.
Early Career Award
Prof. Tyler Cocker wins an Early Career Award from the Department of Energy, to begin July 2024. Read the MSU press release here.
New Grant
Prof. Tyler Cocker wins a grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, to begin September 2024.
Presentation award
Stefanie Adams wins the Best Oral Presentation Award for her talk, "Atomic-scale terahertz time-domain spectroscopy," at the international workshop "Quantum Materials and Structured Light" in Erice, Italy (July 2024). Congrats Stefanie!
New Paper
"Atomic-scale terahertz time-domain spectroscopy" is published in Nature Photonics in July 2024. Read the MSU press release here.
Fellowship
Stefanie Adams wins an Outstanding Scholar Fellowship from the MSU College of Natural Science (March 2024). Congrats Stefanie!
Vedran moves to a new position
After five awesome years in Michigan, Dr. Vedran Jelic takes a new position at the NRC in Ottawa. We'll miss you Vedran!
Undergraduate award
Austin Hayes wins a Hantel award for undergraduate research excellence (December 2023). Congrats Austin!
Conference: IRMMW-THz 2023
PhD students Stefanie Adams, Mohamed Hassan and Sheng Lee present at the conference IRMMW-THz 2023 in Montreal, Canada. Pictured, left to right: Vedran Jelic, Stefanie Adams, Sheng Lee, Mohamed Hassan.
Teaching award
Tyler Cocker wins the MSU Department of Physics and Astronomy Teaching Award (April 2023). Congrats Tyler!
Undergraduate awards
Kaedon Cleland-Host wins the Carl Foiles Award as top graduating senior in the MSU Department of Physics and Astronomy and a Hantel Fellowship for undergraduate research excellence (April 2023). Congrats Kaedon!
PhD award
S. Eve Ammerman wins the S. K. Haynes Award as top graduating PhD student in the MSU Department of Physics and Astronomy (April 2023). Congrats Eve!
Dr. Ammerman's convocation
S. Eve Ammerman becomes the first PhD student to graduate from the Cocker Group at MSU (December 2022). Congrats Dr. Eve!
Eve's PhD defense
S. Eve Ammerman successfully defends her PhD thesis, titled, "Ultrafast Terahertz Microscopy of Atomically Precise Graphene Nanoribbons" (November 2022). Congrats Dr. Eve!
STM 2 arrives
A new low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM) arrives, supported by the ONR DURIP program (October 2022).
New Grant
Prof. Tyler Cocker and MSU collaborator Prof. Pengpeng Zhang win a Grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), to begin October 2022.
Poster Award
Sheng Lee wins a Poster Award at the "Midwest Quantum Collaboratory (MQC) Entanglement 2022" workshop, which took place in Ann Arbor, Michigan (July 2022). Congrats Sheng!
Teaching award
Stefanie Adams receives the "Graduate TA Award - Upper-Level Course" from the MSU Department of Physics and Astronomy (June 2022). Congrats Stefanie! Pictured: Stefanie receiving her award from department Chair Steve Zepf.
Tyler Cocker honored as Jerry Cowen Endowed Chair of Experimental Physics
The chair was created by Randy Cowen to honor his father's legacy as a longtime professor in the MSU Department of Physics and Astronomy. Read the MSU press release here. Pictured: Tyler with MSU's President Stanley, Provost Woodruff, and fellow honoree Prof. Jonas Becker.
New Paper
"Algorithm for subcycle terahertz scanning tunneling spectroscopy" is published in Physical Review B in March 2022.
Fellowship
S. Eve Ammerman wins a Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the MSU College of Natural Science (March 2022). Congrats Eve!
New Paper
"Lightwave driven scanning tunneling spectroscopy of atomically precise graphene nanoribbons" is published in Nature Communications in November 2021. Read the MSU press release here.
Poster Award
Dr. Vedran Jelic wins a Poster Award at the 756th Heraeus Seminar, titled "Faster, Smaller, Stronger, Brighter - Advances in Scanning Probe Techniques," which took place at the Physikzentrum Bad Honnef in Germany (Nov. 2021). Congrats Vedran!
New Paper
"Subcycle contact-free nanoscopy of ultrafast interlayer transport in atomically thin heterostructures" is published in Nature Photonics as the cover story in August 2021. Read the MSU press release here.
New Paper
"Nanoscale terahertz scanning probe microscopy" is published in Nature Photonics in August 2021.
New Paper
"The 2021 ultrafast spectroscopic probes of condensed matter roadmap" is published in Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter in July 2021.
New Grant
Prof. Tyler Cocker wins a Grant from the Office of Naval Research, to begin July 2021.
New Grant
A team including Prof. Tyler Cocker (co-PI) and led by Prof. Jeremy Levy (PI, University of Pittsburgh) wins a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) Award from the Office of Naval Research (ONR), to begin June 2021. The team is made up of researchers from Pitt, MSU, Harvard, UNL and UWM. Read the press release here.
New Grant
Prof. Tyler Cocker wins a Defense University Research Instrumentation (DURIP) Award from the Office of Naval Research, to begin June 2021. Read the press release here.
New Grant
Prof. Tyler Cocker wins a Young Investigator Award from the Army Research Office, to begin April 2021.
Young Scientist Award
Prof. Tyler Cocker receives the 2021 Young Scientist Award from the Infrared, Millimeter and Terahertz Wave (IRMMW-THz) Society in November 2020.
Presentation Award
Ph.D. student S. Eve Ammerman receives first prize in the Best Student Presentation Award competition at the conference IRMMW-THz 2020 in November 2020.
Endowed Chair
Prof. Tyler Cocker named Jerry Cowen Endowed Chair in Experimental Physics in August 2019.
THz-STM
After intensive building and testing, in March 2019 our terahertz scanning tunneling microscope (THz-STM) measures its first THz-pulse-driven tunnel current!
STM arrives
Low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM) installed, February 2019.
New Grant
Prof. Tyler Cocker wins a Grant from the Office of Naval Research, to begin January 2019.
Ultrafast laser arrives
40 W femtosecond laser and optical parameteric amplifier installed, October 2018.
Lab renovations complete
Laboratory renovations completed, August 2018.
Lab renovations begin
After extensive design work by Michigan State University Infrastructure Planning and Facilities and Prof. Cocker, renovations of the lab space for the Ultrafast Terahertz Nanoscopy Laboratory begin, January 2018.
The Cocker Group is founded
Tyler Cocker moves to the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Michigan State University as an Assistant Professor, starting a new research group for Ultrafast Terahertz Nanoscopy on January 1st, 2018. The group will study ultrafast dynamics on the nano and atomic scales with a variety of techniques, including lightwave-driven terahertz scanning tunneling microscopy and terahertz spectroscopy.