Quantum control of nanochemistry

With support from the Macromolecular, Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry Program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Tamar Seideman at Northwestern University is developing ways to control nanoscale systems with light. Light can push the electrons in a molecule around and in turn, exert forces on the nuclei. The effect is exaggerated near metal nanostructures, which can confine light, creating intense plasmonic fields that amplify these forces.

Professor Seideman and her group are developing theoretical methods to predict the plasmonic fields near nanostructures so that they can be used to control chemical reactions, or the flow of electrons through nanoscale electrical junctions. Their discoveries could lead to new ways of understanding the nano-domain and to the advancement of light-driven nanodevices.

The project is pursuing several educational and outreach activities, including participation in programs providing research experiences for undergraduate students and teachers from under-represented groups, as well as establishing two international student exchange programs.

The project aims to tackle three interrelated research challenges. (1) Optical control of conformational motion in molecular switches will be studied using a finite-difference time-domain approach to compute plasmonic enhancement; density functional theory and a slab model to determine the potential energy and polarizability functions; and the Langevin equation to study time evolution. (2) The control of electron transport in graphene nanojunctions will be investigated using a non-Markovian framework that includes the roles of carrier-carrier and carrier-photon couplings. (3) Finally, this research effort will introduce and explore laser-driven reactive nanochemistry that takes advantage of the time-invariant nature of the optical field relative to the rotational period of the molecules. The numerical code that is being developed as part of the work will be broadly disseminated in the scientific community enhancing the impact of the work well beyond the Seideman laboratory.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.