Macromolecular Science
and Engineering Center

  • Theodore Goodson III
  • Department of Chemistry
  • Macromolecular Science & Engineering Center
  • 4819 Chemistry Building, 930 N University Ave.
  • Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2136

Short Biosketch

Theodore Goodson is currently a full Professor in the Dept. of Chemistry and Macromolecular science and engineering. He received Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1996 (Prof. Wang). He completed his postdoctoral study at the University of Chicago and the Oxford University.

Awards/Honors

Current Research

Research in the Goodson group utilizes a number of spectroscopic techniques towards investigating the optical properties and applications of novel organic macromolecular materials. These materials have been suggested to be candidates for variety of applications involving light emitting devices, artificial light harvesting, strong optical limiters, enhanced nonlinear optical effects, quantum optical effects and as sensors in certain organic and biological devices.

Design of Novel Materials With Large Two-Photon Absorption (TPA) Cross Sections

We have designed a building block approach using bis-annulene carbon networks for enhanced two photon absorption cross-sections. By arranging simple building blocks such as triangles and linear molecules, composed of benzene rings and triple bonds, it is possible to vary the location of the TPA maximum as well TPA cross section. We have also investigated branched molecules to elucidate the mechanisms of TPA enhancement and the influence of the nature of π-bridging units and conjugation length on TPA cross section. Explored a novel cyclic geometry in the form of thiophene units linked by triple bonds and found that the excitation is better delocalized in the thiophene ring with larger cavity size.

Ultrafast Excited State Dynamics of Branched Marcromolecules With Enhanced Nonlinear Optical Properties

Excited state deactivation of chromophores with branched architecture probed by femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy has yielded important information about their excited state charge transfer character and transition dipole moment. These two characteristics explain the mechanism behind the enhanced the two photon absorption cross-section in these chromophores.

Electron Dynamics In Novel Topologies of Metal Nanoparticles and Dendrimer-Metal Nanocomposites

A unique phenomenon of interparticle electromagnetic coupling in closely spaced gold nanoparticles has been observed by probing the ultrafast electron dynamics of spherical gold nanoparticles with those of a gold-necklace nanoparticle system. Electron-electron scattering and electron-phonon relaxation (two main aspects of electron dynamics) are found to be significantly different for gold-necklace particles when compared to spherical gold nanoparticles.

Ultrafast Energy Migration In Chromophore Shell-Metal Nanoparticle Assemblies

A multifunctional ligand-coated nanoparticle system containing ~2000 highly two-photon absorptive chromophores has been investigated by means of steady-state and femtosecond time-resolved spectroscopy. This system showed remarkably low self-quenching and high fluorescence quantum yield — important for a variety of two-photon sensing and imaging applications. We have observed evidence for ultra-fast energy migration in these systems.

Strongly Interacting Organic Conjugated Dendrimers With Enhanced TPA

Strongly interacting new dendrimer system with an extended spectroscopic unit beyond the trimer configuration has been investigated. This work focuses on the mechanism of enhancement of the TPA response of this material as a function of the dendrimer generation number. This enhancement is strongly correlated to the size and geometry of the spectroscopic unit in a strongly interacting macromolecular system.

Quantum Entangled TPA Spectroscopy

The classical TPA has an extremely low efficiency which is quantified by its cross-section (δ ~ 10-48 cm4 sec at 800nm). To overcome this limitation we demonstrate a novel effect of the TPA method using the high degree of quantum optical properties in correlated photon pairs created by the process of spontaneous parametric downconversion. A large entangled TPA cross-section (σe ~ 10-17 cm2 at 800nm) was measured in an organic porphyrin dendrimer.

Early Aggregation In Prion Pepetide Nanostructure

Characterization of early aggregates in the self-assembly of prion peptides has been carried out using nonlinear and ultra-fast time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. The dye labeled peptide and dye\peptide guest-host system systems were used to demonstrate the feasibility of the new approach. A new binding ligand — Cascade Yellow — showed promise for β-sheet recognition of prion peptide nanostructures. These findings may have implications for in vivo study of neurotoxic aggregates targeting with fluorescence markers.

List of Recent and Top Cited Publications

  1. Guo, Meng ; Yan, Xingzhong; Kuon, Young; Hayakawa, Teruoki; Kakimoto, Maso-aki; Goodson, Theodore, III, "High Frequency Dielectric Response In a Branched Phthalocyanine" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 128(46), 14820-14821 (2006)
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  2. Bhaskar, Ajit; Ramakrishna, Guda; Haley, Michael M; Goodson, Theodore, III, "Building Symmetric Two-Dimensional Two-Photon Materials" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 128, 13972 (2006)
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  3. Dong-Ik Lee and Theodore Goodson III, "Entangled Photon Absorption In an Organic Porphyrin Dendrimer" J. Phys. Chem. B 110 (51), 25582-25585.
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  4. Ying Wang and Theodore Goodson III, "Early Aggregation in Prion Peptide Nanostructures Investigated by Nonlinear and Ultra-fast Time-Resolved Fluorescence Spectroscopy" J. Phys. Chem. B, Letters 111(2), 327-330 2007
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  5. Goodson, Theodore III, "Optical Excitations in Organic Dendrimers Investigated by Time-Resolved and Nonlinear Optical Spectroscopy" Acc. Chem. Res. 38(2), 99-107 2005
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  6. Ramakrishna, Guda; Dai, Qui; Zou, Jianhua; Huo, Qun; Goodson, Theodore, III, "Interparticle Electromagnetic Coupling in Assembled Gold Nano-Necklace Materials" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 129, 1848-49 (2007)
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Teaching