Professor Aaron Rury

Special Seminar
Professor Aaron Rury
Department of Chemistry
Wayne State University
Host: Professor Renee Frontiera

Abstract

Assessing Hybrid Molecular Platforms for Next Generation Quantum Technologies

Quantum control over light and matter is poised to enable future capabilities beyond the reach of current technologies in chemical synthesis, energy harvesting, and information processing and storage. Despite this promise, the fundamental physical drivers of quantum control in proposed platforms remain unclear. In this talk, I will present results from fundamental studies of structure property relationships in two disparate hybrid molecular systems of emerging interest to the chemistry community. 

First, I will present results from our studies on the chemistry and properties of mid-gap states formed in self-assembled quantum nanostructures. These results indicate synthetic routes to the deterministic design of structural defects for the emission of narrowband light spectra central to solution-processed single photon sources and entangled photon generation in the established telecommunications band. Second, I will present results in the design, fabrication, and characterization of cavity polariton samples containing single and multiple chromophores. These results suggest the entanglement of light and matter states mediated by polariton formation opens new avenues to control ultrafast molecular photophysics and intermolecular interactions on truly quantum footing. These studies demonstrate the wealth of fundamental physical information central to the development of next generation molecular quantum technologies that can be attained from informed materials design and advanced spectroscopic characterization.

Research

Research in the Materials Structural Dynamics Laboratory (MSDL) strives to uncover the fundamental physical processes that lead to useful properties in emerging materials. New materials with useful and exotic properties remain necessary for the development of next generation technologies in electronics, photonics, and information science. The discovery of new materials also means the development and use of tools to explore the physical mechanisms from which their properties derive. Student and postdoctoral researchers in the MSDL will use experimental, theoretical, and computational methods to tackle problems that span the fields of chemistry, physics, materials science, and optics to connect physical mechanisms to material properties. 

Professor Aaron Rury

B.S. Physics (minor in Chemistry) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2004; Ph.D. Applied Physics (Ultrafast and Molecular Spectroscopy), University of Michigan, 2012; Caltech Postdoc at JPL, California Institute of Technology, 2012-2014; Postdoctoral Associate, University of Southern California, 2014-2017.

Research Interests: using vibrations to interrogate electronic processes in emerging materials, drivers of light-matter interactions under different physical conditions, and materials design and function. 

Favorite Scientist: James Clerk Maxwell

Category
Start date
Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021, 9:45 a.m.
End date
Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021, 11 a.m.
Location

This seminar will be presented remotely and live streamed
331 Smith Hall

Zoom Link

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