ABSTRACT

Optical control of dynamic processes has been challenging yet has been demonstrated in several chemical and biological systems. The control of a reaction passing the widely present conical intersection has not been realized. Here, we can modulate the phase of the excitation pulse to achieve control of an important chemical process, the dynamics of β-carotene to access the conical intersection (CI). We then report for the first time on the optical control of electron and proton transfer (PT and ET) processes in chemical and biological systems. Such successful demonstration of optical coherent controlled CI, PT and ET elementary reactions is significant to opening a new direction, especially to control a variety of PT and ET processes in chemical and biological systems.

BIOGRAPHY

Prof. Zhong received his Ph.D. in chemical physics from Caltech in 1999 under the late Prof. Ahmed H. Zewail. For his Ph.D work, Prof. Zhong received the Herbert Newby McCoy Award & the Milton and Francis Clauser Doctoral Prize from Caltech. He was Robert Smith Professor of Physics and Professor of Chemistry at The Ohio State University. He is the Packard Fellow, Sloan Fellow, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, Guggenheim Fellow, APS Fellow, AAAS Fellow, as well as the recipient of the NSF CAREER award and the Outstanding Young Research award from the International Organization of Chinese Physicists & Astronomers. His early work on femtochemistry and recent one on the enzyme dynamics have been cited in the press release and Noble lecture of two Nobel Prizes (1999 & 2015). In 2024, he moved to China and joined Shanghai Jiao Tong University and built a Center for Ultrafast Science and Technology with focus on complex dynamics in materials and biology using ultrafast photons and electrons.