Ultrafast Nanoscience

Currently, we mainly focus on two research areas:

• Ultrafast dynamics in nanomaterials: here, we focus on the generation and investigation of electronic excitations—such as plasmons, excitons, and magnons—ranging from the visible to the mid-infrared in metals, layered semiconductors, and strongly correlated materials. We target light-driven charge and spin dynamics, including exchange and spin-orbit interactions, plasmon-magnon polaritons hybridization and tailored phonon-driven magnetic phenomena using structured ultrashort light beams. Additionally, we artificially manipulate the geometry (shape, size, composition) of conventional materials to optically induce tailored ultrafast dynamics, such as charge and spin generation, injection, and manipulation. The aim is to find possible applications in emerging technological areas, such as spintronics and/or nanophotonics.
   
• Functional materials and advanced spectroscopy techniques: here, we investigate the fundamental physical properties of nanostructured functional metamaterials, including harmonic generation, nonlinear optical phenomena, and the optical control of chemical reactions. Our research combines various functions (optical, magnetic, acoustic and thermal), and explores their coupling with tailored materials and/or environments, such  as quantum emitters and/or molecules, for light-driven opto-electronics and polaritonic chemistry. Additionally, we design functional nanostructures for single-molecule detection and sequencing and develop optical spectroscopy techniques, such as 2D electronic and vibrational spectroscopy, and apply them to materials science and structural biology.

Our research at Umeå University is currently funded by the Swedish Research Council, the European Innovation Council, the European Research Council, Kempestiftelserna and the Wenner-Gren Foundations. We acknowledge also the support from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation through the Wallenberg Academy Fellows Programme. We are grateful to the Department of Physics and the Faculty of Science and Technology, Umeå University, which jointly co-funded the creation of our laboratory and the purchase of major equipment.