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.