Towards control of quantum materials using intense laser pulses. – (Nicolas TANCOGNE-DEJEAN / FeRMI / Séminaire). – 25/11/2025, 11H

Séminaire FeRMI

Nicolas TANCOGNE-DEJEAN, Research Center Futur Energy Materials and Systems of the University Alliance Ruhr and Interdisciplinary Centre for Advanced Materials Simulations (Ruhr University Bochum, Allemagne)

Summary :
All-optical spectroscopy of matter is a well established technique to access properties of electrons and quasi-particles in matter, and the description of optical properties of material is well understood in the limit of weak laser fields. Recent advances in experimental techniques have opened up the possibility to develop novel types of spectroscopies based ultrashort and intense laser pulses.
Using these new probes allows for instance to access non-equilibrium dynamics of condensed-matter systems, coherently control magnetization on ultrafast timescales, or to allow for exploring non-equilibrium phase diagram of correlated materials.
The strong-field electronic dynamics in solids have received a lot of attention, in particular due to the experimental observation of high-harmonic generation in solids. The dynamics associated with strong laser fields requires a non-perturbative description of the electronic dynamics. In this talk, I will present how a successful way for describing this strong-field dynamics in quantum materials, using ab initio methods based on real-time time-dependent density functional theory, complemented by an ab initio Hubbard U [1].
I will present some examples of how these intense lasers can be used to coherently control materials’ properties, in particular correlated materials electronic structure [2], magnetic [3], and optical properties on ultrafast timescales [4,5], especially focusing on recent experimental validations of the earlier theoretical predictions.

[1] . N. Tancogne-Dejean, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 087403 (2017)
[2] . S. Beaulieu, et al., Science Advances 7, abd9275 (2021)
[3] . G. Topp, N. Tancogne-Dejean et al., Nat. Commun. 9, 4452 (2018)
[4] . T. Rossi, N. Tancogne-Dejean, et al., Science Advances 11, adx5676 (2024)
[5] . R. Cazali et al., arXiv:2501.19238 (2025)