Text and photography: Press release of the University of Bremen by Kai Uwe Bohn
A total of 13 researchers (12 principal investigators and one Mercator Fellow from Harvard) are participating in the new geographically dispersed group, with Professor Dante Kennes (RWTH Aachen) as spokesperson. Professor Michael Sentef from the University of Bremen is co-spokesperson. “Half of the group works in theoretical physics, like me, the other half in experimental physics,” says Michael Sentef. ”Our goal is to use light to control the functional properties of novel quantum materials – materials in which atomic quantum mechanical effects play an important role on a macroscopic scale.”
Controlling Material Properties by Light “as if at the Push of a Button”
In this way, light becomes a kind of switch that can be used to manipulate material properties as desired, almost at the push of a button. “The advantage of this over other methods of manipulation – such as chemical composition, pressure, or temperature – is that it is ideally reversible. And all of this happens ultrafast, within a millionth of a millionth of a second.” The long-term goal is to develop sustainable and energy-efficient devices that can be used, for example, for energy conversion, quantum sensors, or quantum technologies in general.
The role of Professor Sentef's working group in this research group is to create models for the materials to be investigated “ab initio” – based on the fundamental principles of their atomic structure – and to solve them using modern methods and computer simulations in a non-equilibrium. “This results in predictions for promising experiments, the results of which will in turn be analyzed using our models,” explains the physicist from Bremen.
Short Summary of the Research Project from the DFG Application
The OPTIMAL research project investigates how special materials – so-called quantum materials – can be controlled with light. These materials have unique properties that make them very interesting for future technologies. One aim is to find out how these materials can be influenced with light pulses to create new states and behaviors.
The problem is that the behavior of these materials in “non-equilibrium,” i.e. when they are influenced by light, is very complicated and not yet fully understood. Furthermore, it is difficult to measure how different aspects of these materials, such as spin, charge, and atomic lattice, interact. In addition, unwanted effects such as heating often obscure the desired changes.
To overcome these challenges, OPTIMAL combines modern experimental techniques with theoretical modeling. The focus is on two groups of materials: materials in which the interaction between spin, charge, and lattice is important (e.g. materials known as Mott insulators), and special metallic compounds that can become superconducting at certain temperatures.
The goal of the first phase of the project is to study these materials in detail and to find out how they can be influenced by light. In the second phase, the researchers then want to develop methods to control the materials in a targeted manner with little laser effort. In the long term, the findings from this project could help to develop new technologies based on quantum materials.
More Information:
https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/lmcqm
https://lab.sentef.org
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Michael Sentef
University of Bremen
Theoretical Solid-State Physics
Institute of Theoretical Physics (ITP) and Bremen Center for Computational Materials Science (BCCMS)
Tel.: +49 (0)421 218-62039
Email: sentefprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
