Group research interests
Single molecule ultrafast photonics
Single molecule coherence at room temperature
We address individual molecules on a femtosecond timescale. By creating fs laser pulses with a dedicated spectral-time structure, we explore coherent excitation routes to control ultrafast pathways and unravel structural variety.
We combine coherent control with shaped laser pulses and single-molecule detection, allowing the observation and manipulation of vibrational wave-packet interference, energy transfer and Rabi oscillations in individual molecules at ambient conditions. The single-molecule approach ensures that the ultimate degree of coherent control can be realized, which is crucial to unravel details of molecular function and dynamics in systems as diverse as light-harvesting complexes, photo-active proteins and conjugated polymers. With similar tools we explore phase control of nanoscale fields in plasmonic antennas.
Funding:
- ICREA - Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats
- ERC – European Research Council, Advanced Grant ERC247330 - NanoAntennas
- CELLEX Barcelona foundation
- MICINN – Consolider Ingenio-2010: CSD2007-046 - NanoLight.es
- MICINN – PlanNacional FIS2009-0123: Optical NanoAntennas
- MINECO – PlanNacional FIS2012: Quantum Coherence for Energy Efficiency
Collaborators:
- Richard Cogdell, Glasgow University, UK
- Richard Hildner, Bayreuth University, D
- Daan Brinks, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
- Fernando Stefani, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Marcos Dantus, BioPhotonics Solutions & Michigan State University, USA
- Peter Fendel, Menlo systems, Thorlabs, USA
- Pascal Tournois, Fastlite, Palaiseau, France
- Klaus Müllen, Max Planck Inst. Polymer research, Mainz, Germany