About

Stephen E. Bradforth

Professor of Chemistry

Contact Information
E-mail: stephen.bradforth@usc.edu
Phone: (213) 740-0461
Office: SSC 702

LINKS
Faculty Profile on Departmental Website
Personal Website
Course Information
 

Education
M.A. Natural Sciences, Cambridge University, 1/1987
Ph.D. Physical Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, 1/1992
 

Postdoctoral Training
Postdoctoral Associate, University of Chicago, 02/01/1993-07/31/1996  
 

Academic Appointment, Affiliation, and Employment History
Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, 04/01/2008-  
Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, 05/01/2002-03/31/2008  
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, 08/01/1996-05/01/2002  
 

Description of Research

Summary Statement of Research Interests
The research in the Bradforth group centers on understanding the ultrafast dynamics of chemical reactions in solution and in complex condensed phase systems such as nucleic Acids and polymers. The common strand in our experiments is to explore the coupling of reactive transformations to the dynamics of the environment. The time scales for reactive processes such as bond breaking or non-adiabatic transformations are on the order of 100 fs; likewise the timescales of solvent or other surrounding motions are 10 fs - 1 ps. In a condensed environment, this allows only a short time window to explore the system evolution and catch the newly-formed products before complete relaxation. Femtosecond spectroscopy is therefore the appropriate experimental technique to elucidate the dynamics. Systems of interest extend from ionic solutes in water and at air-water interfaces, radiation chemistry of pure water and aqeuous systems, and the mechanisms of deactivation and damage of DNA after UV exposure .
 

Research Keywords
Ultrafast dynamics of chemical reactions in solution and in complex systems, solution photodetachment and photodissociation, light harvesting systems, DNA UV photodamage
 

Research Specialties
Femtosecond Spectroscopy UV photophysics of DNA Solution phase reaction dynamics
 

Publications

Journal Article
Pieniazek, P. A., Sundstrom, E. J., Bradforth, S. E., Krylov, A. I. (2009). The degree of initial hole localization/delocalization in ionized water clusters. Journal of Physical Chemistry A.
Suffern, D., Cooper, D., Carlini, L., Parbhoo, R., Bradforth, S. E., Nadeau, J. (2009). Photoenhancement of quantum dots and conjugates measured by time-resolved spectroscopy. Proc. SPIE -Int. Soc. Opt. Eng.. pp. in press.
Elles, C. G., Rivera, C., Zhang, X., Pieniazek, P. A., Bradforth, S. E. (2009). Electronic structure of liquid water from polarization-dependent two-photon absorption spectroscopy. Journal of Chemical Physics. Vol. 130, pp. in press.
Chen, X., Bradforth, S. E. (2008). The Ultrafast Dynamics of Photodetachment. Annual Review of Physical Chemistry. Vol. 59, pp. 203-231.
Slavícek, P., Winter, B., Faubel, M., Bradforth, S. E., Jungwirth, P. Ionization energies of aqueous pyrimidine components of nucleic acids by photoelectron spectroscopy and ab initio calculations. Journal of the American Chemical Society. pp. submitted.
Pieniazek, P. A., vandeVondele, J., Jungwirth, P., Krylov, A. I., Bradforth, S. E. (2008). Electronic structure of the water dimer cation. Journal of Physical Chemistry A. Vol. 112, pp. 6159–6170.
Pieniazek, P. A., Bradforth, S. E., Krylov, A. I. (2008). Charge localization and Jahn–Teller distortions in the benzene dimer cation. Journal of Chemical Physics. Vol. 129, pp. 074104 (1-11).
Mics, Z., Kužel, P., Jungwirth, P., Bradforth, S. E. (2008). Photoionization of atmospheric gases studied by time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy. Chemical Physics Letters. Vol. 465 (1-3), pp. 20-24.
Johnson, J. M., Chen, R., Chen, X., Moskun, A. C., Zhang, X. .., Hogen-Esch, T. E., Bradforth, S. E. (2008). Investigation of macrocyclic polymers as artificial light harvesters: sub-picosecond energy transfer in poly(9,9-dimethyl-2-vinyl-fluorene). Journal of Physical Chemistry B. Vol. 112, pp. 16367–16381.
Cooper, D., Carlini, L., Clarke, S., Suffern, D., Parbhoo, R., Bradforth, S. E., Nadeau, J. (2008). Photoenhancement of Lifetimes in CdSe/ZnS and CdTe Quantum Dot-Dopamine Conjugates. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. pp. submitted.
Pieniazek, P. A., Arnstein, S. A., Bradforth, S. E., Krylov, A. I., Sherrill, C. D. (2007). Benchmark full configuration interaction and EOM-IP-CCSD results for prototypical charge transfer systems: Non-covalent ionized dimers. Journal of Chemical Physics. Vol. 127, pp. 164110.
Bradforth, S. E., Pieniazek, P. A., Krylov, A. I., Bradforth, S. E. (2007). Electronic Structure of the benzene dimer cation. Journal of Chemical Physics. Vol. 127, pp. 044317 (1-16).
Elles, C. G., Shkrob, I., Crowell, R. A., Bradforth, S. E. (2007). Excited state dynamics of liquid water: Insight from the dissociation reaction following two-photon excitation. Journal of Chemical Physics. Vol. 126, pp. 164503 (1-8).
Elles, C. G., Jailaubekov, A. E., Crowell, R. A., Bradforth, S. E. (2006). Excitation-energy dependence of the mechanism for two-photon ionization of liquid H2O and D2O from 8.3 to 12.4 eV. Journal of Chemical Physics. Vol. 125, pp. 044515 (1-12).
Lian, R., Oulianov, D., Crowell, R. A., Shkrob, I. A., Chen, X., Bradforth, S. E. (2006). Electron Photodetachment from aqueous anions. III. Dynamics of Geminate Pairs derived from photoexcitation of mono- vs. poly- atomic anions. Journal of Physical Chemistry A. Vol. 110, pp. 9071-9078.
Moskun, A. C., Jailaubekov, A. E., Bradforth, S. E., Tao, G., Stratt, R. M. (2006). Rotational Coherence and a Sudden Breakdown in Linear Response Seen in Room-Temperature Liquids. Science. Vol. 311, pp. 1907-1911.
Clarke, S. J., Hollmann, C. A., Zhang, Z., Suffern, D., Bradforth, S. E., Dimitrijevic, N. M., Minarik, W. G., Nadeau, J. L. (2006). Photophysics of electron-donor modified quantum dots and effects on biological systems. Nature Materials. Vol. 5, pp. 409-417.
Winter, B., Faubel, M., Hertel, I. V., Pettenkofer, C., Bradforth, S. E., Jagoda-Cwiklik, B., Cwiklik, L., Jungwirth, P. (2006). Electron binding energies of hydrated H3O+ and OH- : Photoelectron spectroscopy of aqueous acid and base solutions combined with electronic structure calculations. Journal of the American Chemical Society. Vol. 128, pp. 3864-3865.
Moskun, A. C., Bradforth, S. E., Thogersen, J., Keiding, S. (2006). Absence of a Signature of Aqueous I(2P1/2) after 200-nm Photodetachment of I-(aq). Journal of Physical Chemistry A. Vol. 110, pp. 10947-10955.
Pieniazek, P. A., Bradforth, S. E., Krylov, A. I. (2006). Spectroscopy of the cyano radical in an aqueous environment. Journal of Physical Chemistry A. Vol. 110, pp. 4854-4865 (cover article).
 

Other
Winter, B., Hertel, I. V., Pettenkofer, C., Bradforth, S. E., Faubel, M. (2006). Reluctant to leave parent: A different spectroscopic look at liquid salty water. BESSY Highlights 2005.
 

Honors and Awards
David and Lucille Packard Foundation Fellowship in Science and Engineering, 1999-2004  
Recipient of National or International Prize in Discipline, Cottrell Scholar of the Research Corporation, 1999-2004  
Dreyfus Award, Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award, 1996-2001  
USC Raubenheimer Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, 2000  
Fulbright Award, 1987-1988  
 

Service to the Profession

Editorships and Editorial Boards
Editorial Board, Journal of Chemical Physics, 2009-2011  
 

Professional Memberships
American Chemical Society, 08/01/1996-  
American Physical Society, 08/01/1996-  
Royal Society of Chemistry, 08/01/1996-  
 
 
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