Abstract:
My first experience with synchrotron radiation was an experiment in 1989 using an angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) beam at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) in Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). That was my first experimental effort after changing my Ph.D. study from a theoretical physics (mathematical physics) to experimental condensed matter physics. I still remember the experiment was about ARPES study of nickel oxide (NiO), a classical Mott insulator material for studying strongly correlated electron system. That experimental results were never published, and I moved to other research fields and finished my Ph.D. based on semiconductor heterojunction studies based on scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. My journey with synchrotron radiation restarted many years later (2001) in Taiwan. And, at this time, it lasted many years and leads to several key publications in my academic career. In the period of 2014-2018, I was fortunate to have the honor serving as the NSRRC director and witness the transition of Taiwan’s synchrotron research by upgrading to Taiwan Photon Source, one of the world’s brightest synchrotron X-ray sources geared toward world-class academic research. In this talk, I will tell you these stories.