Research will be carried out in four areas: 1) Proton tunneling in nearly symmetric wells: based on our previous characterization of the indigo/benzoic acid crystals the system will be used to investigate tunneling dynamics in molecular crystals by means of narrow-band laser methods and picosecond pump-probe techniques. 2) Proton dynamics in asymmetric wells: femtosecond laser methods will be used to study the nature of the dynamics of proton motions in molecular crystalline materials containing intramolecular hydrogen bonds; the nature of the exciton bands in such systems which undergo rapid proton motion will be explored. 3) Dynamics of excitations in polymers of silicon: the optically generated excitations on the long silicon chains of the polysilanes will be studied by picosecond and subpicosecond methods. 4) Energy disposal mechanisms in organic solids: optical and infrared pump-probe experiments will be carried out to study the mechanisms of cooling vibrationally hot molecules in molecular solids.
