With support from the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division, Paul N. Schatz in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Virginia will use magnetic circular dichroism and magnetic circularly polarized luminescence spectroscopies to study species isolated in noble gas matrices at very low temperatures. Specifically, he plans on studying a variety of molecules of biological significance such as phthalocyanine or porphyrin-containing sandwich type compounds in which a metal ion is simultaneously coordinated to two more-or-less planar and parallel phthalocyanine or porphyrin rings. By combining magnetooptical spectroscopy with laser hole-burning techniques, it should be possible to obtain an exceptional degree of detail about excited state g-values, intramolecular electronic and Jahn-Teller interactions and crystal field-type interactions.
