Professor Jeffrey A. Cina, of the University of Oregon Eugene, is supported to perform research on the theory of wavepacket interferometry and relaxation dynamics. Theoretical support for the emerging field of ultrafast spectroscopy is required to aid in reconstructing molecular motion that may be inferred from measurement. A feature of this work is that the information-rich time-dependent molecular wavefunction, rather than probability density, is ultimately determined. Applications of the method are aimed at understanding quantum-state entanglement which is currently an issue of importance to quantum computing, electronic energy transfer which is a key step in photosynthesis, and chemical dynamics in solid materials and condensed-phase environments.
The ability to spectrographically determine processes in and properties of large molecules has been limited until recently. The methods developed here allow one to significantly enhance capabilities for watching molecular motions and are particularly well suited to the size regime relevant to biological processes and quantum dots. Understanding gleaned from such work may impact the development and control of biologically inspired molecular materials for use in catalysis, energy storage and quantum information technologies.
