Dmitry S. Pestov


Physics Department, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4242

Tel: 979-862-1328 (office), 979-862-1290 (lab); E-mail: dspestov@gmail.com
Note: The whole purpose of this web page is to provide some info about my professional background. I am about to graduate and hit the road of a jobseeker. So, if you have an interesting project in mind and think I might be qualified for the job, feel free to send me an e-mail.

A printer-friendly version of my CV - pestov_cv.pdf, resume - pestov_resume.pdf

Other people about our research...

CURRICULUM VITAE

OBJECTIVE: A postdoc position or equivalent (R&D) in experimental optics or related interdisciplinary fields. The present experience can be characterized by the following keywords: coherent anti-Stokes/Stokes Raman scattering (CARS/CSRS), femtosecond CARS, hybrid CARS, ultrashort laser pulses, pulse shaping, detection, time-resolved pump-probe measurements.

EDUCATION

  • Ph.D. in Physics, Texas A&M University, attending; GPA - 4.00/4 (expected graduation date - May 2008)
  • M.S. in Physics (with honors), Nizhniy Novgorod State University, Russia, June 2001; GPA = 4.00/4
  • B.S. in Physics (with honors), Nizhniy Novgorod State University, Russia, June 1999; Cumulative GPA = 3.85/4, Major GRA = 4.00/4

    RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
    Research Assistant
    Advisor: Dr. Alexei V. Sokolov (e-mail: sokol@physics.tamu.edu)
    Location: Institute for Quantum Studies and Physics Department,
    Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4242
    Period: Fall 2004 - present
    Accomplishments:

  • Set up and carried out a series of femtosecond CARS experiments on liquids (such as methanol, ethanol, pyridine, benzene, NaDPA solution) and solids (NaDPA powder) to evaluate the potential of the time-resolved CARS for detection applications.
  • For strongly scattering medium (NaDPA powder), demonstrated the selective excitation of molecular vibrations by shaping of the broadband pump-Stokes pulses.
  • Co-developed and implemented a hybrid technique for coherent Raman spectroscopy (hybrid CARS/CSRS) that combines the advantages of time-resolved and frequency-resolved approaches for CARS; performed proof-of-principle experiments on liquids (pyridine) and solids (NaDPA powder).
  • Carried out a comparative experimental analysis of spontaneous Raman and ultrafast coherent Raman spectroscopy on a neat solution of pyridine. Showed that the broadband pump-Stokes excitation of molecular coherence leads to 105-fold enhancement in the efficiency of the inelastic scattering of the probe photons. Retrieved the magnitude of the molecular coherence excited via a pair of ultrashort pulses under the employed experimental conditions - 0.5x10^(-3).
  • Showed that hybrid CARS can be used for real-time spore detection (on B. subtilis spores). Optimized the initial hybrid-CARS setup and improved its detection capabilities by two-to-three orders of magnitude. Demonstrated a single-shot detection of ~10,000 spores.
  • Assembled all-collinear hybrid CARS setup and observed CARS on ambient air (1555 cm^-1 stretching mode of O2) and natural gas samples.
  • Demonstrated that standard femtosecond pump-probe measurements reveal the evolution of excited vibrational wave packets in Cs2 through the probe transmission modulation; the frequency-resolved acquisition allows for selective monitoring of different subsets of the excited ro-vibrational levels.

    Visiting Scientist
    Advisor: Marlan O. Scully (e-mail: mscully@princeton.edu)
    Location: Applied Physics and Materials Science Group,
    Engineering Quadrangle, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544.
    Period: three visits over 2006 (6 weeks total)
    Accomplishments:

  • Assisted in on-going time-resolved and hybrid CARS experiments.

    TEACHING EXPERIENCE
    Location: Physics Department, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4242
    Spring 2004 - Teaching Assistant and Lab Instructor for PHYS 202 College Physics II (Fundamentals of classical electricity and light)
    Fall 2003 - Teaching Assistant and Lab Instructor for PHYS 218 Mechanics
    Accomplishments:

  • Taught three recitation and lab sections (~70 students per course).
  • Graded quizzes, lab reports, and exams.

    RECENT PAPER SUBMISSIONS

  • D. Pestov, Xi Wang, R. K. Murawski, G. O. Ariunbold, V. A. Sautenkov, and A. V. Sokolov, “Pulse shaping for mode-selective ultrafast coherent Raman spectroscopy of highly scattering solids”, submitted to J. Opt. Soc. Am. B (2007).
  • J. P. Ogilvie, M. Cui, D. Pestov, A. V. Sokolov, M. O. Scully, “Time-delayed Coherent Raman Spectroscopy”, submitted to Molecular Physics (2007).
  • A. Dogariu, A. Goltsov, D. Pestov, A. V. Sokolov, M. O. Scully, “Real-time detection of bacterial spores using Coherent anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy”, submitted to J. Applied Physics (2007).
  • D. Pestov, X. Wang, G. O. Ariunbold, R. K. Murawski, V. A. Sautenkov, A. Dogariu, A. V. Sokolov, and M. O. Scully, “Single-shot Detection of Bacterial Endospores via Coherent Raman Spectroscopy”, accepted for publication in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. (2007).

    PUBLICATIONS IN PEER-REVIEWED JOURNALS (2005-present)

    1. D. Pestov, G. O. Ariunbold, X. Wang, R. K. Murawski, V. A. Sautenkov, A. V. Sokolov, and M. O. Scully, “Coherent versus incoherent Raman scattering: molecular coherence excitation and measurement”, Optics Letters 32 (2007), pp. 1725-1727. [full text]
      [selected for the August 2007 issue of Virtual Journal of Ultrafast Science]

    2. M. Zhi, D. Pestov, X. Wang, R. K. Murawski, Y. V. Rostovtsev, Z.-E. Sariaynni, V. A. Sautenkov, N. G. Kalugin, and A. V. Sokolov, “Concentration dependence of femtosecond coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering in the presence of strong absorption”, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 24 (2007), pp. 1181-1186. [full text]
      [selected for the May 1, 2007 issue of Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research]

    3. D. Pestov, R. K. Murawski, G. O. Ariunbold, X. Wang, M. Zhi, A. V. Sokolov, V. A. Sautenkov, Y. V. Rostovtsev, A. Dogariu, Y. Huang, and M. O. Scully, “Optimizing the Laser-Pulse Configuration for Coherent Raman Spectroscopy”, SCIENCE 316 (2007), pp. 265-268. [full text] [supporting material]
      [highlighted in June 2007 issue of Photonics Spectra, p. 22]

    4. Y. Huang, A. Dogariu, Y. Avitzour, R. K. Murawski, D. Pestov, M. Zhi, A.V. Sokolov, and M. O. Scully, “Discrimination of dipicolinic acid and its interferents by femtosecond coherent Raman spectroscopy”, J. Applied Physics 100 (2006), 124912. [full text]
      AIP copyright notice: Copyright (2006) American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.

    5. D. Pestov, M. Zhi, Z.-E. Sariyanni, N. G. Kalugin, A. Kolomenski, R. Murawski, Y. V. Rostovtsev, V. A. Sautenkov, A.V. Sokolov, and M. O. Scully, “Femtosecond CARS of methanol–water mixtures”, J. Raman Spectroscopy 37 (2006), pp. 392-396.

    6. D. Pestov, M. Zhi, Z.-E. Sariyanni, N. G. Kalugin, A. A. Kolomenskii, R. Murawski, G. G. Paulus, V. A. Sautenkov, H. Schuessler, A. V. Sokolov, G. R. Welch, Y. V. Rostovtsev, T. Siebert, D. A. Akimov, S. Graefe, W. Kiefer, and M. O. Scully, “Visible and UV coherent Raman spectroscopy of dipicolinic acid”, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 102, n. 42 (2005), pp. 14976-14981. [full text]
    The FULL LIST of the co-authored publications can be found here.

    INVITED TALKS

    1. Seminar at Texas A&M University (College Station, TX; November 12, 2007), “Molecular coherence enables spore detection”

    2. Seminar at UC-Berkeley (Berkeley, CA; November 9, 2007), "Ultrafast Coherent Raman Spectroscopy: Towards real-time spectroscopy of real-life samples"

    3. Seminar at Los Alamos National Lab (Los Alamos, NM; November 6, 2007), “Hybrid Technique for Ultrafast Coherent Raman Spectroscopy”

    4. Middleton Meeting on Classical, Semiclassical, and Quantum Noise (Princeton, NJ; November 2-3, 2007), “Using CARS for endospore detection”

    5. Frontiers in Optics 2007/Laser Science XXIII (San Jose, CA; September 16–20, 2007),"Hybrid Technique for Coherent Raman Spectroscopy"

    6. Summer School on Quantum Optics and Molecular Physics (Casper, WY; July 15-21, 2007), "Towards "on-the-fly" detection of Bacterial Endospores"

    7. Princeton-TAMU Symposium on Quantum Coherence and Laser Spectroscopy (Princeton, NJ; March 16-17, 2007), "Hybrid CARS for Anthrax Detection"

    8. TAMU Molecular Physics and Quantum Optics Symposium (College Station, TX; January 9-10, 2007), "Hybrid CARS for Bacterial Spore Detection"

    9. 37-th Winter Colloquium on The Physics of Quantum Electronics (Snowbird, Utah; January 2-6, 2007), "Detection of Bacterial Spores by means of Multiplex CARS spectroscopy"

    10. Antrax Workshop (College Station, TX; January 23, 2006), "UV-probe Coherent Raman Spectroscopy of NaDPA"

    11. 36-th Winter Colloquium on The Physics of Quantum Electronics (Snowbird, Utah; January 2-6, 2006),"UV-probe Coherent Raman Spectroscopy of DPA and its salts"

    12. 35-th Winter Colloquium on The Physics of Quantum Electronics (Snowbird, Utah; January 2-6, 2005), "Femtosecond CARS on organic molecules"

    OTHER PRESENTATIONS (2005-present)

    1. Joint Spring Meeting of the Texas Sections of the APS, AAPT, and Zone 13 SPS (College Station, TX; October 18-20, 2007), "Towards Single-Shot Detection of Bacterial Spores" [oral]

    2. CLEO/QELS/PhAST Conference (Baltimore, Maryland; May 6-11, 2007)
      • "Hybrid of Frequency and Time Resolved CARS" [CLEO, oral]
      • "Detection of B. subtilis spores via Hybrid CARS" [PhAST, oral]
      • "Monitoring Vibrational Wave Packet Dynamics via Direct Femtosecond Pump-Probe Measurements" [QELS, poster]

    3. 10-th Annual Student Research Week (College Station, TX; March 26-30, 2007), "Hybrid Technique for Coherent Raman Spectroscopy" [oral, 1-st prize]

    4. Princeton-TAMU Molecular Physics Symposium (Princeton, NJ; May 18-19, 2006), "UV-probe coherent Raman scattering on DPA in H2O/NaOH solution: Resonant enhancement and absorption" [poster]

    5. 9-th Annual Student Research Week (College Station, TX; March 27-31, 2006), "Molecular detection by means of Coherent Raman Scattering of ultrashort optical pulses" [oral, 1-st prize]

    6. Seminar at the Institute of Applied Physics RAS (Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia; June 3, 2005), “Femtosecond CARS/CSRS on Organic Molecules: Towards Anthrax Detection” [oral]

    7. 8-th Annual Student Research Week (College Station, TX; March 28-April 1, 2005), "Vibrational Coherence in Organic Compounds: Excitation and Probing via fs-CARS technique", [oral, 2-nd prize]

    8. Joint Spring Meeting of the Texas Sections of the APS and AAPT and Zone 13 SPS (Nacogdoches, TX; March 3-5, 2005), "Femtosecond CARS on Organic Molecules" [oral]

    COMPETITIVE HONORS AND AWARDS

  • Student Presentation Award (Fall 2007 TSAPS meeting)
  • 2007 Robert Hyer Award of the Texas Section of the American Physical Society
  • FiO Student Presentation Award (OSA Frontiers in Optics, San Jose, 2007)
  • Incubic/Milton Chang Travel Award (OSA Frontiers in Optics, San Jose, 2007)
  • TAMU Student Research Award, 1-st prize, Texas A&M University, 2007
  • TAMU Student Research Award, 1-st prize, Texas A&M University, 2006
  • TAMU Student Research Award, 2-nd prize, Texas A&M University, 2005
  • Honorary Diploma of Russian Ministry of Education, Student Research Competition, 2001
  • The Scholarship of the President of Russian Federation, Nizhniy Novgorod State University, 1999-2000 and 2000-2001
  • Honorary Diploma of Russian Ministry of Education, Student Research Competition, 1999
  • Sakharov Scholarship, Nizhniy Novgorod State University, 1998-1999

    PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

  • Optical Society of America
  • American Physical Society
  • Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society

    Last Updated: December 27, 2007