Hartland is supported by the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program to examine ultrafast dynamics in confined systems. Three projects that relate to this central theme will be carried out. In the first project, the particle size dependence to electron-electron and electron-phonon coupling in nanometer sized gold and silver particles will be investigated. These studies aim to determine how the time constants for these processes vary with a particle size. Next, the dynamics of trapped electrons in titanium oxide semiconductor particles will be examined via laser pump-probe techniques, to learn about the timescale for thermalization of hot electrons in the titanium dioxide conduction band. Finally, the solvation and non-adiabatic relaxation dynamics of electrons in reverse micelles will be studied, to determine directly how solvent motions depend on the water pool size in the reverse micelle.
The gold and silver nanoparticles that will be studied in this project form the building blocks of nanoscale electronics devices that may provide the next generation of microelectronics circuits. Understanding their size-dependent behavior is an important consideration for the development of these devices. The studies of reverse micelles can provide insights that will improve the understanding of water pockets in biological systems.
