a Chemistry Departmental seminar ft. Prof. Andres Montoya Castillo (UC Boulder)

Spectroscopy has the potential to reveal the structure and dynamics of complex materials, ranging from chromophores in solution to molecular aggregates, nanomaterials, and even quantum sensors. Yet, disentangling spectral signals and extracting an intuitive picture of how excitations form, move, and transform is one of the deepest and most persistent challenges of physical chemistry. In this talk, I will offer two vignettes on our work developing and applying approaches to predict and understand light-matter interactions can reveal the mechanisms of energy flow that set the stage for controlled energy harvesting and quantum sensing. In the molecular world, I will show how our recent advances in condensed phase spectroscopy enable us to decipher a long-standing puzzle in porphyrin photophysics: why and how do the Q bands involved in energy transfer in photosynthesis and artificial energy conversion split? In the world of quantum information, I will show how we can build intelligent algorithms that enable us to extract signals from quantum noise—signals that reveal structure and dynamics in the quantum world and which promise an exciting future for quantum sensing technology.