Advancing the investigation of photo-induced electron dynamics: from nanoplasmonics to nuclear transitions

by Prof. Andrea Trabattoni (DESY/Leibniz Universität)

Monday 30 Jan 2023, 16:00 → 18:00 Europe/Berlin

In the last two decades, time-resolved spectroscopy of photo-induced electron dynamics provided unique tools to investigate a plethora of processes occurring in nature, paving new ways of understanding and manipulating matter on ultrafast time scales. [1-4]. In the seminar, recent advances in the investigation of photo-induced electron dynamics in complex systems will be presented.
The first part of the presentation will focus on the realtime tracking of the plasmonic dephasing time in fullerenes [5]. In particular, we demonstrated that the dephasing time of the giant plasmon in C60 maps directly into the energy-dependent intrinsic time delay of the electron photoemission. In this context, we identified the contribution originating exclusively from the large-scale correlation-induced collective excitation of the giant plasmon to be the fastest route of dephasing, with a characteristic time between 50 and 200 as. The study can inspire investigations of rapid decoherence and control of plasmon phenomena on their natural time scale, for the development
of novel technology involving quantum plasmonics.
In the second part, new research directions will be described that aim at interrogating the electron dynamics that are involved in nuclear transitions. Indeed, the excitation of a nuclear level in atoms can initiate efficient energy exchange between the atomic nucleus and the electron cloud through several dynamical mechanisms. Such electron-nucleus dynamics are extremely relevant for any nuclear transition with energies lower than 100 KeV and they intrinsically represent a bridge between atomic and nuclear physics. Photo-controlling such processes is promising for high-impact applications in multiple disciplines, from nuclear medicine to high-precision metrology.