Archive 2019

Room: Seminar Room IV, O1.111

Valley Jahn-Teller effect in Twisted Bilayer Graphene

MPSD Seminar
The surprising insulating and superconducting states of narrow-band graphene twisted bilayers have been mostly discussed so far in terms of strong electron correlation, with little or no attention to phonons and electron-phonon effects. We found that, among the 33492 phonons of a fully relaxed 1.08° twisted bilayer, there are few special, hard, and nearly dispersionless modes that resemble global vibrations of the moiré supercell ('moirè phonons'). [more]

Electronic dynamics of strange metals

MPSD Seminar
The normal state of unconventional superconductors often exhibits anomalous transport properties and it is commonly referred to as a “bad” or “strange” metal. Understanding its collective charge dynamics, which defies the standard quasiparticle description of a Fermi liquid, is an outstanding challenge of modern condensed matter physics.In this talk, I will present a direct measurement of the collective charge dynamics of the strange metal using inelastic electron scattering. First, I will discuss how normal-state Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d is defined by a featureless, localized continuum, undergoing a low-temperature massive spectral weight redistribution. I will then describe how such a phase is found to coexist with a low-energy Fermi liquid in Sr2RuO4.These results indicate that strange metals are highly localized in space and dissipate on ultrafast timescales, seemingly bound only by quantum limits. Implications for the occurrence of high-temperature superconductivity will be discussed. [more]

Gauge issues in the description of solids with strong light-matter coupling

MPSD Seminar
The rich physics of complex condensed matter systems is largely understood in terms of minimal tight-binding models, which describe interacting electron systems on a lattice with only few valence orbitals per site. To incorporate a strong light-matter coupling into such models, one can project the continuum theory on a given set of valence bands. [more]

Full Quantum Nature of Water on Salt Surface

MPSD Seminar
Despite water being a ubiquitous substance, it is surprising that some basic questions are still debated. Here using a combination of experimental (cryogenic STM) and theoretical (first-principle electronic structures and molecular dynamics) methods, we systematically studied the unusual structure and dynamics of water molecules on NaCl surface. More interestingly, for the first time, we observe the full quantum effect and magic number hydrates in water system. These results shed light on our understanding of water at atomic scale. [more]

Ultrafast single-molecule videography and choreography

MPSD Seminar
To understand the function of condensed matter, it would be desirable to directly watch its atomistic building blocks dynamically interact on their intrinsic length and time scales. Recently, lightwave electronics has made this long-standing dream come true. The idea is to exploit the carrier wave of light as an ultrafast, contact-free bias to interrogate and control the nanocosm. I will first review how lightwaves can drive electrons in solids into surprising sub-cycle quantum motion. By combining this idea with the sub-angstrom spatial resolution of scanning tunnelling microscopy we can set an ultrashort time window for single-electron tunnelling into a single orbital and record first atom-scale slow-motion movies of individual vibrating molecules. Finally, I will show how to directly exert femtosecond atomic forces, which can selectively choreograph a coherent structural motion of a single-molecule switch in its electronic ground state. This stunningly direct access to the atomistic world may tailor key elementary dynamics in nature and steer (bio)chemical reactions or ultrafast phase transitions, on their intrinsic spatio-temporal scales. [more]

Fractional Excitonic Insulator

MPSD Seminar
We argue that a correlated fluid of electrons and holes can exhibit a fractional quantum Hall effect at zero magnetic field analogous to the Laughlin state at filling 1/m. We introduce a variant of the Laughlin wavefunction for electrons and holes and show that for m=1 it describes a Chern insulator that is the exact ground state of a free fermion model with p_x + i p_y excitonic pairing. [more]

Ab initio few-mode theories for quantum potential scattering problems

MPSD Seminar
The concept of a single mode of the electromagnetic field interacting with matter has been a paradigm in the field of light-matter interactions. For example, the single mode Jaynes-Cummings model and its many generalizations have been indispensable tools in studying the quantum dynamics of various systems. In particular in cavity and circuit QED, where strong light-matter coupling is routinely achieved in experiment, such models have been tremendously successful [1]. [more]

Coherent states of light and ordered states of matter in cavity QED

MPSD Seminar
Collective phenomena originating from interactions between light and matter have become a major focus of interest spanning different fields of research. [more]

Single-shot optical probing of laser-generated plasmas

MPSD Seminar
Lasers have captured scientific interest since their inception and increase in the on-target intensity has resulted in powerful petawatt (≈1015W) laser systems across the globe [1]. Such a laser gives the possibility to study and optimize processes such as electron [2] or ion [3] acceleration resulting from interaction of extreme electric fields (E ≥ 0.5 TV/m) with matter 0. In this talk, I would outline the current efforts of POLARIS (a Petawatt laser system) in Jena to study the effects of such laser-plasma interaction. A single-shot all optical probing was performed with Aluminum targets to fully characterize the plasma evolution. The basic motivation of the work, the experimental setup used and some results would be presented in the talk. [more]

Manipulating quantum materials with cavity fields

MPSD Seminar
We investigate ground state properties of electronic materials strongly coupled to cavity fields. In a two-dimensional electron gas, we explore electron paring mediated by vacuum fluctuations of the transverse electromagnetic field. To date, these interactions have only been discussed in free space, where their impact is restricted to extremely low temperatures. We argue that the sub-wavelength confinement of the light field in nanoplasmonic cavities can enhance the induced interaction to an experimentally accessible regime. In a one-dimensional Hubbard model, the cavity further enhances magnetic couplings at half-filling, and introduces next-nearest-neighbor hopping. References: F. Schlawin, A. Cavalleri, and D. Jaksch, arXiv:1804.07142. M. Kiffner, J. Coulthard, F. Schlawin, A. Ardavan and D. Jaksch, arXiv: 1806.06752. [more]

Nonequilibrium dynamics in strongly correlated systems: spin-charge coupling in a photodoped Mott insulator and possible induced superconductivity

MPSD Seminar
Nonequilibrium pump-probe time-domain spectroscopy opens new perspectives in studying the dynamical properties of the strongly correlated electron systems. In particular, the interplay between different degrees of freedom in strongly correlated materials can be studied by their temporal evolution [1] and also the optical switching to some novel phases is possible [2]. [more]
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