Ultrafast Dynamics in Nanoscale Systems

Main Research Lines

• Transport and dynamics of heat and charge in nanoscale systems

• Quantum materials

• Photodetection

• Terahertz technologies

The main goal of the recently established (October 2018) Ultrafast Dynamics in Nanoscale Systems Group is to probe, understand and exploit ultrafast phenomena that take place at the nanoscale. These phenomena have far-reaching implications in terms of material and system properties, as well as technological applications in fields such as thermal management, light harvesting, photodetection, data communication and quantum technologies.

Currently, one of the main material systems under investigation is that of quantum materials, in particular, two-dimensional layered materials and hybrid Van der Waals heterostructures. The group studies the exciting interplay between different carriers of energy/heat/information in these systems, such as photons, electrons, phonons, spins and other (quasi-)particles.

A significant effort in the group is devoted to the investigation of flow and transduction of electronic and phononic heat in nanoscale systems. This fundamental work is performed mainly within the framework of the ERC Starting Grant project CUHL (Controlling Ultrafast Heat in Layered materials), which was awarded to Dr Tielrooij at the end of 2018, and a project by the Spanish Ministry of Science, STEAMY, which is a joint experimental-computational effort towards understanding and steering heat flow in 2D materials.

The group also works in the field of terahertz technologies, and in particular nonlinear terahertz photonics, where quantum materials such as graphene and topological insulators turn out to be an excellent platform with strongly improved figures of merit. As part of this research, the group was granted several (competitive) beamtimes at the TELBE facility of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (Germany).

The UDNS group is strongly involved in developing novel ultrafast optical and optoelectronic microscopy techniques, with a range of techniques currently available in the lab.