Solvent effects on structure and optical properties of push-pull molecules

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Professor Anne Kelley of Kansas State University is supported by the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program to perform advanced spectroscopic studies of molecules with potential for good nonlinear optical responses. By quantitatively simulating the absolute resonance Raman intensities and optical spectra of these species in solution, the PI will experimentally determine the effect of solvent environment on the structures of both the ground and lowest excited electronic states of the molecules. Neural networks will be tried for fitting experimental data to models. The molecules will also be studied embedded in polymer matrices at 5K using single molecule emission spectroscopy. It is important to be able to quantify the relation of optical and nonlinear optical responses to solvent effects, if these molecular structures are to be incorporated into polymer matrices to fabricate devices. This work will improve our ability to convert sophisticated spectral data into predictive models for new optical materials. Optical materials are needed for advances in optical computing and communications.