The objectives of this proposal are to provide diagnostic tools to search for the presence of carbon materials in space and study their evolution. To this end, we intend to measure in the laboratory…

This federal contract award to the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute (Baer Institute), a non-profit research organization, was made by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Shared Services Center. The $6,699,668.00 cooperative agreement is to provide diagnostic tools and conduct laboratory measurements to detect and characterize gas-phase molecules, clusters, and solid grains (dust particles) using laser-based techniques. The goal is to build an extensive database of interstellar analogs that can be compared to space data to enable unambiguous detection of specific species in the interstellar medium. This research supports NASA's astrophysics and planetary science missions. The contract does not have a set-aside designation and was completed on July 19, 2022.

The objectives of this proposal are to provide diagnostic tools to search for the presence of carbon materials in space and study their evolution. To this end, we intend to measure in the laboratory the spectral properties and characteristics of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pahs) and carbon-bearing molecules, clusters and nanoparticles in emission using two complementary, highly-sensitive laser based techniques, laser induced fluorescence (LIF) and laser induced incandescence (LII). These laboratory measurements, performed under astrophysically relevant conditions, will help detect and characterize the gas phase molecules and clusters as well as the solid grains (dust particles). The cosmic simulation facility (cosmic) developed at NASA ames will be used to study neutral and ionized molecules and clusters in a pulsed, supersonic jet-cooled plasma expansion, i.e., isolated in a collision-free environment and at low temperature (50-100K) representative of the interstellar environment. We intend to build an extensive gas-phase emission database for interstellar analogs of neutral and ionic pahs, pahclusters and large carbon molecules that can be directly compared to space data for the unambiguous detection of specific species in space. In particular, PAH-related photoproducts such as hydrogenated pahs (HN-pahs), nitrogenated pahs (panhs) and polyynyl-substituted pahs will be considered in this project since they are probably present in the ISM and may contribute to the observed aromatic emission bands.