On the fundamental side, our primary focus is on excited state dynamics and ground-state properties of self-assembled organic molecular aggregates. A variety of excited-state processes including intersystem crossing, singlet fission, and exciton diffusion are of special interest. These studies rely heavily on insights gained by optical spectroscopy, and our group performs both electronic (transient absorption) and vibrational (Raman, resonance Raman) experiments with femtosecond- to-millisecond time resolution.
We also have strong interest in charge transport in molecular aggregates, with primary insights gained by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and electron-nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) spectroscopy. The following publications from work at Northwestern University illustrate some of the themes of our current effort at UCSD.
Michael J. Tauber, Richard F. Kelley, Jovan M. Giaimo, Boris Rybtchinski, Michael R. Wasielewski, J. Am. Chem.
Soc., 2006, 128 (6), pp 1782-1783
Thea M. Wilson, Michael J. Tauber, and Michael R. Wasielewski, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131 (25), pp 8952-8957
On the applied side, our current focus is on 3-dimensional dye-sensitized solar cells utilizing new architectures with titanium dioxide nanotubes for increased photon absorption. This work by Cyrus Rustomji is carried out in collaboration with Prof. Sungho Jin, (Director of the Material Science Program at UCSD) and Christine Cobb in his group.