Driven Quantum Materials

Speaker: Andrea Cavalleri, Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg (Germany) and Department of Physics, University of Oxford (UK)

 Program Description:
I will discuss how coherent electromagnetic radiation at Tera-Herz frequencies can be used to drive complex solids periodically, controlling the coupling between their collective excitations. These drives are also shown to give rise to non-thermal states with unconventional types of microscopic order and new functional properties. Important examples involve the nonlinear control of the crystal lattice, used to induce magnetic order, ferroelectricity and non-equilibrium superconductivity at high temperatures.