In this project, funded by the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division, Marcus will do research on Fourier Correlation Imaging Spectroscopy (FCIS) of polymers and super-cooled molecular liquids. The work consists of four tasks: 1) to improve the sensitivity of the technique to detect density fluctuations from molecular ensembles over time scales ranging from one hundred thousandths of a second to 1000 seconds; 2) to develop a polarization sensitive version of FCIS; 3) to combine FCIS with two-color and electronic energy transfer (EET) measurements; and 4) to extend the FCIS technique to study fluctuations of transition dipole relaxations on sub-nanosecond time scales. These developments will be applied to several carefully selected molecules and polymers to answer critical questions about the molecular shape, polymer backbone flexibility, intermolecular cohesive forces, and other critical problems of flexible polymers and super-cooled molecular liquids.
This is an interdisciplinary project that builds bridges between physical chemistry, materials science, and biology. Graduate as well as undergraduate students will participate in the research and will acquire skills and knowledge of advanced, state-of-the-art experimental and theoretical techniques.
