Revealing Coupled Interactions in Complex Matter – Towards Control of Material Properties

This research conference provides a forum for discussion of optically induced non-equilibrium dynamics and photoinduced phase transitions in cooperative condensed-matter systems. The main focus of the conference is on time-dependent properties of fundamental and quasi-particle excitations, electronic phase transitions, magnetic switching and spin dynamics, structural transitions and ultrafast processes in systems with reduced-dimensionality. The range of material systems to be considered is intentionally broad and diverse, but common features and mechanisms are shared in their underlying dynamics.

Ultrafast spectroscopy techniques provide the means to investigate these phenomena at the intrinsic timescales of their electronic and atomic motions, offering a unique view of the properties of cooperative systems of condensed matter. It is now possible to generate and detect femtosecond pulses across the THz, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, and x-ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, enabling advanced time-resolved spectroscopic investigations. Ultrafast electron diffraction and photoelectron emission provide complementary dynamical information to electromagnetic probes. Following ultrafast excitation, systems may be near equilibrium and undergoing relaxation processes well-described in terms of coupling among its initial degrees of freedom, or may be far from equilibrium in metastable or unstable states with fundamentally different physical properties.

Typical topics include: Experimental studies and theory of utrafast quasi-particle dynamics in superconductors, colossal magneto-resistance materials, low-dimensional charge and spin density wave compounds, insulators, Kondo systems and heavy fermion compounds; time-domain studies of structural, electronic, and magnetic degrees of freedom and their corresponding excitations and interactions; optically induced magnetic, ferroelectric and multiferroic, metal-insulator, and solid-liquid phase transitions; ultrafast magnetic and electronic switching phenomena; correlation effects in excitonic systems; ultrafast few-particle and collective effects in solid-state nanosystems; ultrafast dynamics in novel quantum materials such as graphene, TDCs or topological insulators; optical control over near and far-from-equilibrium dynamics.