Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

Our research is concerned with the development and application of spectroscopic and imaging tools designed to visualise, study and eventually control dynamic processes in chemistry and biology. These efforts can be roughly divided into the following areas:

1. Real-time nano-dynamics Nanoscopic objects such as virions and proteins intrinsically move on the nanometer size and microsecond time scale but current methods are incapable of revealing such dynamics in real time. We are developing a novel interferometric imaging technique based on light scattering to overcome the limitations of single emitter localisation and study the mechanisms of molecular motors, dynamics at interfaces and polymer properties.

2. Towards efficient light-matter interactions We use ultrafast spectroscopy to study the role of conical intersections in mediating efficient photochemistry and photophysics in condensed phase reaction dynamics. By combining our results with theoretical predictions and coherent manipulation of the reacting species we not only hope to finally fulfill the dream of making molecular movies but also use this information to design efficient light-matter interactions.

3. Ultrafast nano-photonics We aim to combine ultrashort time and ultrasmall length scales to ultimately study and control coherent phenomena at the nanoparticle and eventually single molecule level.

PartIIs Visit our group pages on partII projects for 2014 or get in touch. We aim to take 2-4 students.

M. Liebel, C. Schnedermann, G. Bassolino, G. Taylor, A. Watts and P. Kukura, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 238301 (2014) M. Liebel, C. Schnedermann and P. Kukura, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112 198302 (2014) J. Ortega-Arroyo, J. Andrecka, K. Spillane, N. Billington, Y Takagi, J. R. Sellers and P. Kukura, Nano Lett. 14, 2065 (2014)

G. Bassolino, T. Sovdat, M. Liebel, C. Schnedermann, B. Odell, T. Clardige, P. Kukura* and S. P. Fletcher* J. Am Chem. Soc. 136, 2650 (2014)