Project description
Optimising terahertz dynamics in complex materials for quantum and spintronic applications
Light-induced states of matter are gaining significant attention, particularly at terahertz frequencies where materials show collective resonances like Higgs modes, plasmons and magnons. However, current technology struggles to control material properties at the terahertz efficiently. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the LightMode project addresses this limitation by exploring complex driving protocols with nontrivial spectral composition or polarisation properties to excite and manipulate terahertz collective modes in correlated electronic systems. Using amplitude-modulated signals, the research will focus on antiferromagnetic Mott insulators and plasmons in 2D gapped Dirac materials. The goal is to study non-equilibrium states under strong driving and develop applications in spintronics, plasmonics and quantum devices.
Objective
Currently, light induced states of matter focus the attention of many researchers in condensed matter physics. An important limitation at the moment is the lack of efficient technology that could be used to control material properties at THz frequencies. On the other hand, this regime is interesting, because many materials exhibit collective resonances in the THz regime. Some examples are the Higgs modes of superconducting and charge density wave phases, plasmons in two dimensional materials and magnons in antiferromagnets.
This project addresses the problem of exciting and manipulating THz collective modes in correlated electronic systems. The idea is to use complex drives with a nontrivial spectral composition, or polarization properties. One example that will be investigated in this project are amplitude modulated signals. Here, a high frequency signal is modulated on the THz scale. Under special conditions, the modulation can couple to THz collective modes such as magnons and plasmons. The collective modes are then parametrically excited. An intriguing aspect of this scheme is that the driving is off-resonant, i.e. the driving consists of frequencies which are much higher (e.g. by a factor of a hundred) then the collective resonances. This can be useful to reduce noise and heating.
During this project, we will study ways to off-resonantly excite low frequency collective modes through complex driving protocols. Our main focus will be on antiferromagnetic Mott insulators with a strong Hund coupling, and plasmons in two dimensional gapped Dirac materials. Upon establishing tailored driving protocols, we will study the non-equilibrium states to which the systems evolve under strong driving. Finally, applications, such as time varying spintronic and plasmonic media with unusual wave propagation properties, and means to create THz entangled magnons, which could be useful in quantum devices, will be considered.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
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Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
80539 Munchen
Germany