Publisher Correction: A molecular cross-linking approach for hybrid metal oxides.

In the version of this Article originally published, Liban M. A. Saleh was incorrectly listed as Liban A.

Controlling optical gain in semiconducting polymers with nanoscale chain positioning and alignment.

We control the chain conformation of a semiconducting polymer by encapsulating it within the aligned nanopores of a silica host. The confinement leads to polarized, low-threshold amplified spontaneous emission from the polymer chains. The polymer enters the porous silica film from only one face and the filling of the pores is therefore graded.

Elucidating the initial dynamics of electron photodetachment from atoms in liquids using variably-time-delayed resonant multiphoton ionization.

We study the photodetachment of electrons from sodium anions in room temperature liquid tetrahydrofuran (THF) using a new type of three-pulse pump-probe spectroscopy. Our experiments use two variably-time-delayed pulses for excitation in what is essentially a resonant 1+1 two-photon ionization: By varying the arrival time of the second excitation pulse, we can directly observe how solvent motions stabilize and trap the excited electron prior to electron detachment. Moreover, by varying the arrival times of the ionization (excitation) and probe pulses, we also can determine the fate of the photoionized electrons and the distance they are ejected from their parent Na atoms.

Manipulating the production and recombination of electrons during electron transfer: Femtosecond control of the charge-transfer-to-solvent (CTTS) dynamics of the sodium anion.

The scavenging of a solvated electron represents the simplest possible electron-transfer (ET) reaction. In this work, we show how a sequence of femtosecond laser pulses can be used to manipulate an ET reaction that has only electronic degrees of freedom: the scavenging of a solvated electron by a single atom in solution. Solvated electrons in tetrahydrofuran are created via photodetachment using the charge-transfer-to-solvent (CTTS) transition of sodide (Na(-)).