Ultrafast Light to Probe Matter and Novel Excitations in Matter to Control Light
Prof Akshay Rao, University of Cambridge

In this talk, I will begin by discussing recent advances in ultrafast optical spectroscopies and microscopies which are giving us the ability to understand joint electronic and structural dynamics, as well as the transport of photoexcitations in matter, with time-resolution below 10fs and on length scales below 10nm. I will give examples of how this is enabling new mechanistic insights into the dynamics of hybrid and organic semiconductors[1,2], 2D materials sustaining room temperature exciton condensates[3] and living photosynthetic systems [4]. I will end by discussing how these insights from optical spectroscopy can be harnessed to develop hybrid photoexcitations in organic/lanthanide nanoparticles to enable a new class material for photon frequency conversion [5].

[1] Sung et al., Nature Physics, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-019-0730-2
[2] Sneyd et al., Science Advances, 2021, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abh4232.
[3] Bretscher et al., Science Advances, 2021, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abd6147
[4] Baikie et al., Nature, 2023. DOI:10.1038/s41586-023-05763-9.
[5] Han et al., Nature, 2020, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2932-2