Light Induced Superconductivity

Program Description

Light is emerging as a new tool to control complex materials, especially by coherently exciting collective modes on thermal energy scales, that is, at terahertz frequencies. Highly surprising emergent behavior away from equilibrium is revealed in our studies, such as light-induced superconducting-like phases found at or near room temperature in high-Tc cuprates and, more recently, in organic materials belonging to the fullerene family.

Bio

Daniele Nicoletti got his PhD in 2010 at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, where he has been investigating the low-energy electrodynamics of strongly correlated materials and high-Tc superconductors using FT-IR spectroscopy. He then moved to the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg, in Andrea Cavalleri’s group, where he is now focusing on the control of complex solids with strong THz fields on ultrashort timescales, using both table-top and free-electron-laser sources.