Chemist
Chemist

Biography

Dr. O'Callahan is a chemist in the Structural Biology team in PNNL’s Environmental Molecular Sciences Division and the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) user program. His PhD research at the University of Colorado Boulder focused on using a novel super-resolution technique to achieve nanometer spatial resolution with infrared and optical spectroscopy. Since joining PNNL and EMSL, he has extended the use of this technique to biological systems, specifically focusing on protein identification and location. Under a U.S. Department of Energy Biological and Environmental Research program bioimaging grant, he developed the first-of-its-kind in-liquid nanoscale Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (nano-FTIR), which allows imaging of samples immersed in liquid with nanometer spatial resolution and chemical specificity.

Research Interest

  • Using infrared scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (IR SNOM)/nano-FTIR to perform infrared spectroscopy with nanoscale spatial resolution and sub-ps time resolution. This allows chemical identification of biological systems on their relevant length and time scales. 

Education

  • PhD in Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, 2017  

  • MS in Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, 2015  

  • BS in Physics and Mathematics, University of Washington, 2011 

Awards and Recognitions

  • Recognition for Postdoc Appreciation Week 2019, PNNL 

Publications

2020 

Bhattarai A., B.T. O'Callahan, C. Wang, S. Wang, and P.Z. El-Khoury. 2020. "Spatio-Spectral Characterization of Multipolar Plasmonic Modes of Au Nanorods via Tip-Enhanced Raman Scattering." Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 11, no. 8:2870-2874. PNNL-SA-151304. doi:10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c00485 

O'Callahan B.T., A. Bhattarai, Z. Schultz, and P.Z. El-Khoury. 2020. "Power-Dependent Dual Analyte Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectral Imaging." The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 124, no. 28:15454-15459. PNNL-SA-153512. doi:10.1021/acs.jpcc.0c05396 

O'Callahan B.T., K. Park, I.V. Novikova, T. Jian, C. Chen, E.A. Muller, and P.Z. El-Khoury, et al. 2020. "In liquid infrared scattering scanning near-field optical microscopy for chemical and biological nanoimaging." Nano Letters 20, no. 6:4497-4504. PNNL-SA-152805. doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c01291 

Wang C., B.T. O'Callahan, D. Kurouski, A.V. Krayev, and P.Z. El-Khoury. 2020. "The Prevalence of Anions at Plasmonic Nanojunctions: A Closer Look at P-Nitrothiophenol." Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 11, no. 10:3809-3814. PNNL-SA-152463. doi:10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c01006 

Wang C., Z. Cheng, B.T. O'Callahan, K.T. Crampton, M.R. Jones, and P.Z. El-Khoury. 2020. "Tip-Enhanced Multipolar Raman Scattering." Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 11, no. 7:2464-2469. PNNL-SA-151145. doi:10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c00559 

Wang, C. F., B. T. O'Callahan, D. Kurouski, A. Krayev, Z. D. Schultz, and P. Z. El-Khoury. 2020. “Suppressing Molecular Charging, Nanochemistry, and Optical Rectification in the Tip-Enhanced Raman Geometry.” Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 11 (15): 5890-5895. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c01413

2019 

O'Callahan B.T., M. Hentschel, M.B. Raschke, P.Z. El-Khoury, and A. Lea. 2019. "Ultrasensitive Tip- and Antenna-Enhanced Infrared Nanoscopy of Protein Complexes." Journal of Physical Chemistry C 123, no. 28:17505-17509. PNNL-SA-144661. doi:10.1021/acs.jpcc.9b05777 

2018 

O'Callahan, B. T., J. Yan, F. Menges, E. A. Muller, and M. B. Raschke. 2018. “Photoinduced Tip-Sample Forces for Chemical Nanoimaging and Spectroscopy.” Nano Letters 18 (9): 5499-5505. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b01899

O'Callahan B.T., K.T. Crampton, I.V. Novikova, T. Jian, C. Chen, J.E. Evans, and M.M. Raschke, et al. 2018. "Imaging Nanoscale Heterogeneity in Ultrathin Biomimetic and Biological Crystals." Journal of Physical Chemistry C 122, no. 43:24891-24895. PNNL-SA-136203. doi:10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b06681