CAREER: Simulating Mesoscale Quantum Dynamics and Non-linear Microscopy

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。在化学系化学理论、模型和计算方法计划的支持下，南方卫理公会大学的多兰·贝内特正在努力揭示分子材料传导能量的量子力学过程。下一代技术的发展源于我们控制、操纵和重定向能源的能力的进步。班尼特博士的团队将把量子过程的计算机模拟从传统的分子尺度扩展到与分子材料相关的纳米到微米尺度(即‘介观尺度’)。这些严格的计算模型有望确定特定材料如何吸收和分配光能，为那些希望设计新材料的人提供必要的信息。这项研究将结合化学、计算、高等数学和STEM领域，这些领域存在严重的性别和种族差异。结合他的研究，Bennett博士将启动一项密集的综合夏季研究计划，以接触到更多来自服务不足群体的理科专业学生，努力通过多样化实现更大的卓越。Doran Bennett博士在该奖项下的研究将满足对新的计算工具的迫切需求，以支持分子材料中的中尺度(10 nm-1μm)激发态动力学的新兴科学前沿研究。快速发展的合成和光谱工具箱有望实现结构控制和建立中尺度过程的空间分辨探测器。班尼特博士和他的团队将利用电子激发态的局域性，在形式上精确的(自旋-玻色子)运动方程中模拟分子材料的光物理，该运动方程被称为纯态自适应层次(AdHOPS)。Bennett博士将扩展adHOPS以模拟现实分子材料存在的复杂振动环境中的激发态动力学(例如，涉及多个振动频率和松弛时间尺度)。他和他的团队还将努力开发相应的计算方法，以模拟空间分辨的非线性光谱学。这些努力有望为社区提供新的理论工具，用于解释合成分子材料中的光谱测量和预测激发态动力学。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).With support from the Chemical Theory, Models and Computational Methods program in the Division of Chemistry, Doran Bennett of Southern Methodist University is working to uncover the quantum mechanical processes by which molecular materials conduct energy. Next generation technology development stems from advances in our ability to control, manipulate, and redirect energy. Dr Bennett’s group will extend computer simulations of quantum process from the traditional molecular-scale to the nanometer-to-micron scale, (i.e. the ‘mesoscale’) that is relevant to molecular materials. These rigorous computational models are expected to establish how specific materials absorb and deploy energy from light, providing essential information to those looking to engineer novel materials. This research will combine chemistry, computation, and advanced mathematics, STEM fields with severe levels of gender and race disparities. In conjunction with his research, Dr. Bennett will launch an intensive, wrap-around summer research program to reach greater numbers of science majors from underserved groups in an effort to achieve greater excellence through diversity.Doran Bennett’s research under this award will address the pressing need for new computational tools to support an emerging scientific frontier studying mesoscale (10 nm – 1 μm) excited-state dynamics in molecular materials. Rapidly developing synthetic and spectroscopic toolboxes are expected to enable structural control and the establishment of spatially-resolved probes of mesoscale processes. Dr. Bennett and his group will leverage the locality of electronic excited-states to simulate the photophysics of molecular materials within a formally exact (spin-boson) equation-of-motion called the adaptive hierarchy of pure states (adHOPS). Dr. Bennett will extend adHOPS to simulate excited state dynamics in the presence of complex vibrational environments of realistic molecular materials (e.g. involving many frequencies of vibration and timescales of relaxation). He and his team will also endeavor to develop the corresponding computational methods for simulating spatially resolved non-linear spectroscopy. These efforts are expected provide the community with new theoretical tools for interpreting spectroscopic measurements and predicting excited state dynamics in synthetic molecular materials.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.