Project Details
FOR 5750: Optical Control of Quantum Materials (OPTIMAL)
Subject Area
Physics
Term
since 2025
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 531215165
Ultrafast control of macroscopic properties of quantum materials through light-matter interaction is a promising avenue for condensed-matter research. The tremendous progress in the past decade brought key challenges that require collaborative efforts and new assets to face them. The challenges are rooted in the facts that i) nonequilibrium energy landscapes of complex materials are not well understood, ii) the interplay between various degrees of freedom (spin, charge, orbitals, lattice) is difficult to characterize experimentally and model theoretically, iii) heating and dissipation often blur the desired coherent dynamics. The assets are both the development of experimental techniques for nonequilibrium physics and the advancement in understanding how Floquet physics and strong light-matter coupling can provide new powerful means for control. The Research Unit OPTIMAL (Optical Control of Quantum Materials) brings together a team of researchers to tackle these central challenges through a joint experimental-theoretical effort. Our key goal is to advance experimental driving and probing schemes in combination with state-of-the-art theory to push forward principal paradigms in the field. Central questions of OPTIMAL are: How can we steer the nonequilibrium trajectory of a quantum material in its complex energy landscape and reach metastable hidden states? What is the best route to induce new states of matter via Floquet driving and phonon pumping, either avoiding dissipation effects in Mott insulators, or even utilizing it to establish dissipative Floquet states? Can we leverage strong light-matter coupling in cavities to control fluctuations of light for materials control? This endeavor requires the close collaboration of a Research Unit like OPTIMAL. We will combine complementary driving (THz, wavelength-tunable mid-infrared, visible broadband, Fabry-Perot and THz on-chip cavities) and time-resolved probing (ARPES, optics, transport, diffraction, scattering) techniques as well as a broad tool box of theoretical methods (tensor networks, nonequilibrium Green's functions, semiclassical methods). OPTIMAL will focus on two classes of materials, namely correlated materials that show strong interaction of spin, orbital, and lattice degrees of freedom (e.g., Mott insulators Sr$_2$CuO$_3$, CaCu$_2$O$_3$ and spin-Peierls compounds TiOCl and CuGeO$_{\rm 3}$), and the charge-ordered and superconducting Kagome metals AV$_3$Sb$_5$ (A=K,Rb,Cs). In the first funding period, we will implement a complete program of experimental and theoretical characterization of optical control on these selected materials platforms. Building on these results, we envision in a second funding period to combine these concepts of coherent impulsive control, Floquet, phonon, and cavity engineering to bridge the gap between these paradigms and achieve the long-term goal of low-laser-power optical control of quantum materials enabled by strong light-matter coupling.
DFG Programme
Research Units
International Connection
Switzerland, USA
Projects
- Coordination Funds (Applicant Kennes, Dante Marvin )
- P1: Non-thermal photoinduced phase transitions in Mott based quantum materials (Applicant Eckstein, Martin )
- P2: Floquet engineering, dissipation, and cavities using tensor networks (Applicant Karrasch, Christoph )
- P3: Coherent control of Kagome metals (Applicants Rettig, Laurenz ; Sentef, Michael )
- P4: Disentangling electronic and lattice dynamics in kagome metals (Applicant Seiler, Hélène )
- P5: On-chip ultrafast control of kagome metals (Applicants Kennes, Dante Marvin ; McIver, James )
- P6: Dynamic band structure control of kagome metals and Mott insulators (Applicant Gierz-Pehla, Isabella )
- P7: Nonlinear Cavity Magnophononics (Applicants Schlawin, Frank ; Viola Kusminskiy, Silvia )
- P8: Cavity control of the spin-Peierls phase (Applicant Fausti, Daniele )
Spokesperson
Professor Dr. Dante Marvin Kennes