Photochemistry, photophysics and spectroscopy of polyatomic molecules

光引发的化学和物理过程是地球上生命的核心。早期对自然光驱动过程的科学研究，如光合作用和视觉，不可避免地导致好奇的人提出关于这些现象的最基本的问题。“光的本质是什么？”“光是如何与物质相互作用的，其后果是什么？”这些答案为新技术、健康改善和财富创造提供了基础，超出了第一个提问者的最疯狂的想象：静电复印、光纤通信、光学数据存储、用于捕获和存储太阳能的人工方法、废水处理的光化学方法、针对某些类型癌症和黄斑变性的光动力疗法。整个行业目前都是基于激光的产生及其在光电子器件、微机械加工和许多其他应用中的使用。更多的是在地平线上；光驱动的分子逻辑器件，光量子计算，光化学和光物理过程的相干控制，以及许多其他应用正在积极研究中。在我们的研究小组中，我们继续研究物质吸收光的化学和物理效应的基本问题，我们获得的信息继续在这些和其他重要领域得到应用。我们的具体目标是研究分子在高激发电子态的结构和动态行为。我们15年前所做的基础研究现在在设计和制造捕光聚合物方面得到了应用。我们最近所做的工作表明，我们感兴趣的分子如何作为开关和逻辑门被整合到光驱动的分子电子器件中。在我们实验室接受培训的年轻科学家现在可以在世界各地的大学、政府实验室和行业的研发、技术、教学和行政职位上找到工作。

Chemical and physical processes initiated by light are central to life on earth. Early scientific studies of natural light-driven processes such as photosynthesis and vision led curious minds inevitably to ask the most fundamental questions about these phenomena. "What is the nature of light?" "How does light interact with material substances and with what consequence?" The answers have provided the basis for new technologies, improvements in health, and wealth creation beyond the first questioners' wildest imaginations: xerography, fibre optic communications, optical data storage, artificial methods for the capture and storage of solar energy, photochemical methods of wastewater treatment, photodynamic therapy for some types of cancer and for macular degeneration. Whole industries are presently based on the generation of laser light and its use in photonics devices, micromachining and a host of other applications. More is on the horizon; light-driven molecular logic devices, optical quantum computing, coherent control of photochemical and photophysical processes, and numerous other applications are under active investigation. In our research group we continue to address fundamental questions about the chemical and physical effects of the absorption of light by matter, and the information we obtain continues to find application in these and other important areas.Our specific aims are to examine the structure and dynamic behaviour of molecules in highly excited electronic states. Fundamental research that we did 15 years ago now finds application in designing and fabricating light-harvesting polymers. Work that we have done more recently shows how molecules of interest to us could be incorporated as switches and logic gates into light-driven molecular electronics devices. The young scientists that have been trained in our laboratories may now be found in research and development, technical, teaching and administrative positions in universities, government laboratories and industries around the world.