With this award, the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program supports the work of Professor Michael R. Wasielewski of Northwestern University. This research will involve development of a fundamental understanding of how to control charge and spin transport through organic molecules which is critical to the development of new approaches to electronics, computers, energy production and in the construction of spintronic devices. Rapid, laser-driven formation of molecular excited states leading to the production of correlated spins combined with modern pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance techniques will be used to generate and manipulate multi-spin systems. For example, photoinitiated electron transfer within covalently-linked organic donor-acceptor molecules having specific donor-acceptor distances and orientations results in formation of highly spin-polarized radical pairs in which the initial spin state is well defined. These organic radical ion pairs display coherent spin motion for microseconds at room temperature and longer at low temperatures, which makes it possible that this coherence can provide the basis for new organic information processing devices.
The broader impacts of this research involve the training of young scientists, including undergraduates and women, in a combination of synthetic methodology, to make complex molecules, quantum chemistry and high resolution spectroscopy, to study the synthesized compounds. This will enable these students to become proficient in a broad interdisciplinary area of chemistry which will allow them to become independent scientists and learn to work in a team, so necessary in today's marketplace. In addition, the results of this work will impact the fields of charge transport, solar energy, nanotechnology and device fabrication, and organic magnetism.
