All magnetic resonance processes rely on the polarization of spin, something normally accomplished thru application of a strong external magnetic field. Typical X-band electron paramagnetic resonance experiments at room temperature have <0.1% spin polarization, and such weak polarization limits sensitivity and applications. We use inorganic synthesis and molecular symmetry to design molecules that may be polarized by absorption of circularly polarized light. This optical technique may deliver far higher degrees of spin polarization and could be useful even beyond magnetic resonance, including in quantum information technologies like quantum sensing.

The chemistries of lanthanide and actinide metals differ quite dramatically from those of the transition metals because f orbitals interact only weakly with the ligand field. Instead of covalency, spin–orbit coupling takes over as the strongest influence on electronic structure. Despite the relative weakness of the metal–ligand interactions, ligands are still responsible for tuning all of the physical properties of these ions, so a thorough understanding of how to characterize each ligand's influence is important. We are synthesizing lanthanide and actinide (thorium/uranium) coordination complexes in order to characterize covalency, f/d mixing, and nephelauxesis.

The synthesis of donor–acceptor molecules allows high degrees of control over the photophysical properties of the system. We are exploring the preparation of odd-electron species in order to study how properties like excited state lifetime, spin–orbit coupling, chirality, spin–lattice/spin–spin relaxation time, and more are interrelated.