Project description
Understanding and controlling conical intersections
Conical intersections (CIs) are regions in a molecule’s potential energy surface where different electronic energy levels intersect, enabling non-adiabatic transitions and challenging the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. CIs are essential in various ultrafast processes in photochemistry, materials science, and photobiology. Despite their potential, experimental studies remain limited due to the rapid timescales involved. The ERC-funded CONCERT project aims to directly visualise the moment of interaction between CIs and wave packets (WPs), using this development to control the dynamics of WPs around CIs and the outcomes and yields of photochemical reactions. These findings will enable fundamental breakthroughs in both our understanding of molecular mechanisms and a variety of other key research sectors.
Objective
Conical intersections (CIs) are regions in the potential energy surface of molecules where different electronic energy levels intersect, leading to the breakdown of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation and promoting non-adiabatic transitions between electronic states. CIs preside over essential ultrafast processes in photobiology, photochemistry, and materials science as they can be viewed as “doorways” through which a photoexcited vibrational wave packet (WP) is efficiently funnelled to a lower-energy electronic state.
Despite theoretical predictions, CIs have been experimentally elusive so far, due to the extreme speed of the processes leading to and occurring at the CIs and to the associated large variation in the energetic landscape of the molecule, calling for extreme spectral and temporal resolutions. Leveraging recent experimental advances in the generation of ultrashort soft X-ray pulses and conceptual advances in nonlinear optical spectroscopy, CONCERT aims to: i) directly visualise the very moment in which the molecular WP passes through the CI and the associated quantum mechanical electronic coherences; ii) use this knowledge to control, using tailored light pulses, the WP dynamics in the vicinity of a CI and, ultimately, the outcome and the yield of a photochemical reaction by operating exactly where the fate of the process is decided.
CONCERT will have both fundamental and applied impact. On the one hand, it will enable the understanding of the molecular mechanisms driving the passage of a WP through a CI, advancing our knowledge of nature and providing design guidelines for artificial molecular systems that mimic the natural ones. On the other hand, it will offer the ability to control the rates and branching ratios of photochemical processes by manipulating the excited state WP in the critical region that determines its ultimate path, fulfilling the long-held dream of using light as a photonic catalyst to control the outcome of chemical reactions.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences chemical sciences physical chemistry photochemistry
- natural sciences chemical sciences catalysis
- natural sciences physical sciences optics spectroscopy
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC-SYG - HORIZON ERC Synergy Grants
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) ERC-2025-SyG
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20133 Milano
Italy
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