Analytical Applications of Coherent Multidimensional Vibrational Spectroscopy

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Professor John Wright of the University of Wisconsin-Madison is supported by the Analytical and Surface Chemistry Program to continue development of the new family of mixed frequency/time domain coherent multidimensional spectroscopies that has been pioneered by his team. The goal is to make these methods practical so they can provide coherent alternatives to conventional electronic and vibrational spectroscopy. These methods potentially have great selectivity and information content. The research team will use their discovery of coherent transfer spectroscopy to explore the relationships between coherent and incoherent energy transfer in molecules as well as directly observing the energy redistribution within a molecule. They will also apply four wave mixing spectroscopies to analysis of peptides and proteins to develop models to probe the structural dynamics of these important molecules, their interactions with each other, and the changes that occur when a protein binds to another protein or DNA molecule. The spectroscopic methods currently used by scientists are often limited by their ability to resolve individual species in complex materials and to establish the relationships between species. The development of these coherent methods will provide new capabilities for resolving specific molecules and for identifying the interactions that connect them. These new methods will have broad impact through important applications throughout science and technology because they directly measure and isolate the intra- and inter-molecular interactions that define how a material such as a protein functions. Prof. Wright is actively engaged in related activities aimed at informing the broader scientific community about the fundamentals underlying these tools, and developing and disseminating active learning methods that deepen student competence and expand diversity in science.