CAREER: Manipulating Molecules and Motivating Students; Explorations of Energy Conversion through Adaptive Control and in New Educational Platforms

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In this award the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program of the Division of Chemistry supports the development of a fundamental chemical sciences research effort in the group of Professor Niels Damrauer at the University of Colorado to understand how charge and energy flow in complex condensed-phase molecules following absorption of light. Femtosecond pulse-shaping methodologies will be called upon to interrogate and control photochemical pathways in novel coordination complexes. Systems exhibiting photoinduced electron transfer reactivity are selected and new metal complexes are synthesized wherein internal motions are expected to modulate the rate of a photoinduced electron transfer reaction. Photochemical control is expected if adaptively shaped laser fields can manipulate these motions. Additional systems are developed that exhibit excited-state relaxation pathways competing with electron transfer. This aspect of the program aims to develop spectroscopic methods for studying dynamical phenomena at reactive branching points between productive and non-productive channels. Finally, efforts are made to develop pulse-shaping two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy of inorganic chromophores and to link the observations to both opportunities and mechanisms for control. In the educational outreach component of this program, curricula relating to sustainable energy production are being developed for dissemination to middle school students in Colorado and to assist in professional development for teachers of grades 5-8. The societal and environmental urgency of the topics considered should motivate young minds to engage in fundamental scientific exploration and to seek further scientific training in high school.