Ultrafast Phenomena in Nanophotonics and 2D Materials
Ultrafast photo-induced carrier dynamics in plasmonic nanostructures and 2D materials span time scales from femtoseconds to picoseconds. Probing the evolution of the electrons toward equilibrium (tens to hundreds of fs), which occurs in very small dimensions, requires developing measurement methods that will allow a simultaneous access to the spatio-temporal domains.
In our lab, we are interested in exploring ultrafast carrier dynamics and related nonlinear effects in plasmonic nanostructures and 2D materials, and in particular, to study ultrafast energy harvesting mechanisms.
We are developing novel ways to observe, retrieve and even manipulate the electron spatio-temporal evolution in these nano-scale condensed matter systems.
In particular, we are interested in exploring the ultrafast electron dynamics and related nonlinear effects in plasmonic nanostructures, metamaterials and low-dimensional condensed matter systems.
As part of our research in the past few years, we combined theoretical microscopic models with novel experimental measurement methods, which include: sub-10fs pulse-shaping-based measurements, ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy and merging few-cycles ultrashort light sources with near-field microscopy.
All these experimental (state-of-the-art) techniques have been assembled, calibrated and utilized in several research activities