University of Groningen
Exciton dynamics in self-assembled molecular nanotubes Kriete, Björn
DOI:
10.33612/diss.123832795
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Publication date: 2020
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Kriete, B. (2020). Exciton dynamics in self-assembled molecular nanotubes. University of Groningen. https://doi.org/10.33612/diss.123832795
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Acknowledgements
Finally, it is time to conclude my Thesis with the part that is probably going to be read the most (according to my own empirical research), and thank all the wonderful people I had the pleasure to meet, work and spend time with during my PhD journey. Maneuvering through that journey would have merely been possible without all of you being directly or indirectly involved for which I am very incredibly grateful. Thanks for making my time as a PhD student such a memorable experience.
First and foremost, the person I am most indebted to is my promotor and (daily) supervisor Maxim Pchenitchnikov. Maxim, without your continuous support this whole PhD endeavor would not have been possible. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be part of your group. Moreover, thank you for all the faith you have put into me with reviving a long standing and in that sense historical project in the group concerning molecular aggregates. Your enthusiasm for the project has always been very rewarding to me and I sincerely hope to have paved the way for its successful continuation. Looking back, I am glad that 4 years ago I decided to prolong my master project to a PhD project and stay in science for a little longer. Under your guidance I have learned a lot about being a (self-)critical and (ethically) aware scientist, how science works behind the curtain, how to deliver presentations to broad audiences, how to write publications, the ever-increasing frustration threshold and the ladder of humiliation, and so much more. Thank you for all your devotion, time and energy.
My sincere gratitude also goes to my second supervisor Jasper Knoester. Jasper, you kindly agreed to serve as my (at first) first and later second PhD promotor. Despite your extremely busy schedule as the dean of our faculty, you have always managed to free some time in your agenda to attend our aggregate meetings, proofread my manuscripts/thesis and provide critical yet much appreciated and helpful feedback. Your diligence and passion for science are and have been a huge inspiration to me. Next, I also like to gratefully acknowledge the members of my reading committee Jennifer Ogilvie, Keith Stevenson and Richard Hildner. Thank you for the time that you all devoted to reading my Thesis and providing me with valuable feedback. I am particularly aware of the number of pages of this Thesis, which makes me appreciate your perseverance in reading it even more.
I am profoundly thankful to my paranymphs Ioannis and Vincent (… and yes, I still consider you guys my paranymphs despite the Corona virus officially depriving you from that noble task). Ioannis, even though we haven’t known each other for a very long time, I am still glad you accepted to be one of my paranymphs. I guess we are simply on the same wavelength… Vincent, I am happy that we have met at the presentation skills course and many more events thereafter; it has been a lot of fun – not talking about many of the following mornings though. I wish you all the best for your further scientific career in Potsdam in my former group. Writing these words, I realize that I seem to have a fixed set of selection rules for picking my paranymphs. The most decisive criteria appear to be French speaking, lived in Paris, gone for a freezing cold swim in the North Sea, and of course (at least) a couple of rounds of ‘spieker sloan’ in a hotel bar on Vlieland (shout out to Marten here as well). In any case, a big thank you to both of you for helping me (or actually being 100 % ready and willing to help) with all the whole organization of my PhD defense.
Science is not a one man’s mission, but builds on communication, collaboration and teamwork. In that context I would to gratefully acknowledge my colleagues from the optical condensed matter
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physics (OCMP) and our younger sibling group optical spectroscopy of functional nanosystems (OSFN). I have always immensely enjoyed gathering at our group meetings, lunch breaks and most importantly during our frequent coffee breaks to discuss societal as much as scientific topics. During all that time, our coffee room (pardon meeting room) has become a safe harbor to keep ones sanity after countless hours in the dark and at times depressing environment of a laser lab. Thank you to all former as well as current members of the OCMP/OSFN crowd: Ron, Oleg, Julius, Anna, Evgeniia, Nilesh, Chia-Lin, Benedito, Nong, Kevin (Xiaomeng), Artur, Ioannis, Sebastian, Richard, Maxim, Ben, Foppe, Jeanette, and Henriet. I will keep all our group activities (bowling, dinners, playing pool, specialbiertjes at the Pintelier, climbing at Kardinge, etc.) in vivid memory. The same goes for all the time we have spent together at and around conferences (e.g. Ultrafast Phenomena in Santa Fe and Hamburg, several editions of Physics@Veldhoven and the biennial Vlieland meetings, etc.) with stealing bottles of wine, going out for drinks, hiking in the North American canyons and calderas, sightseeing in Moscow and so forth. I am glad to have been part of the awesome OCMP/OSFN family. Two people that particularly stand out from this crowd are our technicians Ben Hesp and Foppe de Haan. Ben, we have only had a short period of overlap before you retired. Nevertheless, even in that short time you managed to introduce me to all the labs and laser setups in the group and taught me all the basics of laser safety and spectroscopy. A visit at your family’s former bar in Amsterdam is still on my bucket list. Foppe, putting together the 2D setup without all your help regarding the electronics and software programming would not have been possible, let alone all the troubleshooting and lab work in general. Over the years I have uploaded you with countless inquiries about your software, which you were always able to deliver in record time. In addition, your translation service of my scientific summary of this Thesis was of great help, too. Thank you for all of that.
Henriet and Jeanette, thank you for taking some of the bureaucratic workload off us PhD students, while also keeping us up to date about everything urgent and not-so-urgent going on in the institute. You have been of tremendous help with all these non-science related questions and issues and this way made my university life quite a bit easier. Thank you for that!
I am also grateful for all the students that have chosen to pursue a research projects with me as their daily supervisor: Camiel, Sonya, Jan, almost Jane, Teun, and Carolien. It has been an extremely joyful experience with all of you; especially witnessing your interest in and enthusiasm for the project. As much as (I hope) you have learned from me, you have also taught me in return. All your questions really made me reflect on issues that seemed initially clear to me, but crumbled when asked. Only if you have truly understood a subject, you are able to explain it to someone else. That way you all have played an important role in my academic career. I wish you all the best for your futures.
Next, I would like to thank all collaborators and colleagues from the University of Groningen. At times, an experimental physicist would be quite lost without the aid from some outstanding theoreticians to have his back. Thomas, Tenzin and Anna, thank you for being such devoted and always responsive collaborators. Regardless of what data or questions we were throwing at you, you always approached them with great curiosity and openness. Ilias, Alex, Siewert-Jan, although we have never directly worked on a project together, we have had countless, very fruitful discussions. With the latest developments I think we have opened up exciting new opportunities to study the self-assembly dynamics and I am thrilled to see both ends meet. Marc Stuart, thank you for teaching me everything about TEM imaging ranging from sample preparation to microscope operation (including all the do’s and don’t’s). Also, thank you for helping me out with any microscope related technical
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problems I encountered. I hope that one day we will meet on a marathon track; preferably when I overtake you, not vice versa. Linda Franken, I have enjoyed our collaboration a lot. Bedankt voor de tijd, energie en moeite die jij in dit project heeft gestoken. To this day, the TEM images that you have taken of my nanotubes remain the prettiest in this Thesis (see Chapter 6). Chapeau! Varsha Jumde and Adri Minnaard, it has been a pleasure to work with such meticulous chemists. Thank you for synthesizing the C8S3-Br and C8S3-F compounds for us and taking the time to explain all the chemistry essentials to us ignorant physicists. Victor Krasnikov, building and thoroughly characterizing the microscope setup was only possible thanks to your knowledge and expertise, which have been of incredible help.
Widening the scope to international collaborations, I would like to thank my collaborators from the University of Würzburg Tobias Brixner and Julian Lüttig. Tobias, thank you for hosting me in Würzburg and allowing me to conduct experiments in your group using your very impressive instrumentation. Julian, you were the one in charge of baby-sitting me during my stay in Würzburg and helping me with all the experiments. Your enthusiasm about the project in general and the system in particular were beyond contagious. Moreover, also outside the lab you have made my visit to Würzburg a memorable one. Good luck with your further PhD trajectory. Thanks to both of you and Pavel Malý at a later stage for all your input and patience, which eventually has paid off and culminated in a beautiful paper.
Although a PhD student’s natural habitat is mostly in the lab, there is (surprisingly) also a life outside the institute. In that context, these acknowledgements cannot go by without mentioning my boxing club GSBV Pugilicé. Besides providing the best workouts in ‘G-town’ and, thus, being an effective release valve for any stress, the club has become my social point of reference over the past few years. All the pain and sweat we have endured inside the ring and activities outside the ring have really shaped my time in Groningen and brought me so many great memories together with such a sublime crowd of people: Henk, Harri, Remco, Jelmer, Wypkelin, Kelly, Gina, Goutham, Cyrus, Michael, Ramon, Luca, Jean-Michel, Piet, Leonid, Jamo, Lotte, Thijs, Luc, and Laurent. Moreover, your Dutch lessons were invaluable: a conversation in a crowded pub after having had a few beers and some trashy Dutch music blasting in the background is certainly next level, which I mastered thanks to you. I will never forget our trips to Hamburg, Antwerp, Wageningen (for the GNSK), the annual boxing camps on Schiermonnikoog, participating in the Batavierenrace, my board year and role in the GSNK committee, all the spelletjesavonden, borrels, veggie dinners, ... and many more. Thank you for all of that!
Finally yet importantly, I like to thank my friends and family for their continuous support in the background. Thank you to the 2010 physics class from Potsdam and of course the ‘Braunschweig squad’ (Nils, Lukas, Flo, JD, Rike, Krimpf, and Henrik). I consider myself extremely lucky to have such a loyal group of friends, which I certainly do not take for granted. Luise, thank you for always being there for me and I am happy that you have entered my life. I know that I am not the type of person who shares a lot of details about my work, which does not mean that I appreciate your interest to any lesser extent, just silently. I know that I can count on anyone of you anytime and no matter what.
Björn Kriete April 3, 2020 Groningen, Netherlands
