SFB 1477:  Light-Matter Interactions at Interfaces (LiMatI)

• Subject Area: Physics ; Chemistry
• Term: since 2022
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 441234705

The mission of the CRC 1477 LiMatI is the exploration of light-matter interactions at interfaces employing strong ultrafast fields and dedicated targets. We will investigate how the geometrical, electronic and topological structure of light-matter systems with interfaces affect the sub-cycle emission of radiation and particles in strong fields, and how specific excitations and their transport dynamics can be controlled using interfaces with tailored optical and electronic properties. Recent progress in strong-field laser physics, integrated photonics, and condensed matter physics allows pushing light-matter interactions at surfaces and interfaces beyond previous limits. Attosecond physics opens new routes to exploit the strongly nonlinear coupling of light and matter, providing the grounds for resolving and controlling electronic structure and dynamics on time scales below a femtosecond and nanometer length scales. We will use intense, tailored light to characterize geometrical, electronic, and topological features of matter via high-harmonic and photoelectron emission. Novel preparation approaches enable the design of dedicated light-matter landscapes based on condensed matter heterostructures, which allow the realization of new hybrid light-matter quasiparticles and the shaping of the electronic properties of interfaces to guide or to locate light and excitons in unique ways. Molecular films, colloidally synthesized and exfoliated 2D nanomaterials, plasmonic nanostructures, embedded single-molecule photoemitters, and integrated waveguide circuitry will be used to implement these ideas. This will allow us to investigate the underlying physics, which is at the heart of fundamental phenomena in nature and numerous technological applications, such as ultrafast optoelectronics, sensing with unprecedented high spatial and temporal resolution, efficient light harvesting, and precise laser machining. Moreover, CRC 1477 LiMatI will foster methodological developments regarding, e.g., diagnostics, target design and functionalization as well as the theoretical and computational description of the physics of light-matter interactions at interfaces. In most of the projects, PIs from experiment and theory jointly guide the PhD students working on the experimental realization and the theoretical analysis of the project goals. The shared use of dedicated instrumentation and infrastructure, numerical approaches, and target preparation methods combined with the close links enforced by secondments of PhD students among the participating research groups will form the CRC LiMatI to the appropriate scientific platform to tackle our challenging objectives. The research work is organized in 13 projects and will be flanked by an outreach project dedicated to pupils and the public, an integrated research training group, and an information management and infrastructure project.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres

Current projects

• INF - Information Infrastructure Project (Project Heads Fennel, Thomas ;  Schick, Sebastian ;  Szameit, Ph.D., Alexander )
• MGK - Integrated Research Training Group (Project Head Lochbrunner, Stefan )
• S01 - High-harmonic spectroscopy of molecular films (Project Heads Bauer, Dieter ;  Fennel, Franziska )
• S02 - Strong-field lightwave electronics in solids (Project Heads Goulielmakis, Ph.D., Eleftherios ;  Ivanov, Mikhail )
• S03 - Sub-cycle nanoplasma dynamics and nanoprocessing in solid dielectrics (Project Heads Fennel, Thomas ;  Rouzée, Arnaud )
• S04 - Phase-controlled photoemission from individual clusters at surfaces
 (Project Heads Barke, Ingo ;  Bauer, Dieter )
• S05 - Attosecond photoemission from metallic nanotips and surfaces (Project Heads Fennel, Thomas ;  Goulielmakis, Ph.D., Eleftherios )
• S06 - Interface-assisted laser desorption and ionization of molecules on nanoparticles (Project Heads Passig, Johannes ;  Peltz, Christian )
• W01 - Imaging topological phases of laser-driven few- and many-particle systems (Project Heads Bauer, Dieter ;  Szameit, Ph.D., Alexander )
• W02 - Integrating 2D crystals and waveguide circuits: Active components and versatile exciton spectroscopy (Project Heads Heinrich, Matthias ;  Korn, Tobias )
• W03 - Non-linear plasmon-exciton coupling in monolithic nanocrystals (Project Heads Lesyuk, Ph.D., Rostyslav ;  Scheel, Stefan )
• W04 - Energy and charge transfer in organic/inorganic van der Waals heterostructures (Project Heads Korn, Tobias ;  Kühn, Oliver )
• W05 - Controlling exciton migration in quasi-two-dimensional perovskite nanosheets (Project Heads Klinke, Christian ;  Kühn, Oliver )
• W06 - Guided exciton migration in molecular networks coupled to plasmonic particles (Project Heads Lochbrunner, Stefan ;  Speller, Sylvia )
• W07 - Interface engineering of luminescent defects in 2D materials
 (Project Heads Kühn, Oliver ;  Reinhard, Friedemann )
• Z - Central Administrative Project (Project Head Bauer, Dieter )
• Ö - LiMatI for Pupils and the Public (Project Heads Reinholz, Heidi E.M. ;  Tiggesbäumker, Ph.D., Josef )

• Applicant Institution: Universität Rostock
• Participating Institution: Max-Born-Institut für Nichtlineare Optik und Kurzzeitspektroskopie; im Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V.
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Dieter Bauer