ABSTRACT
Transient absorption microscopy has become an important method for studying the properties of nanomaterials. These experiments can provide unique information about the energy relaxation processes in different nanomaterials, and how these materials communicate with their environment. Transient absorption imaging experiments can also generate information about the motion of excitons and/or electron–hole pairs in semiconductor nanostructures, and the propagation lengths of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in extended metal nanostructures. This chapter provides a detailed description of how these experiments are performed, presents the different types of laser systems that have been used for the measurements, and discusses the major sources of noise in the experiments. Examples are also given of applications of transient absorption microscopy to studies of the photophysics of semiconductor nanowires, and SPPs in noble metal nanoplates.
