Ultrafast spectroscopic techniques provide a multidimensional perspective on photo-induced processes in excitonic materials by offering spectral, temporal, and/or spatial resolution. This allows for a comprehensive analysis of processes, including exciton generation, relaxation, recombination, diffusion, dissociation, intersystem crossing, coherent coupling, energy transfer, charge transport in solid films, and spin-selective dynamics such as chirality induced spin selectivity. Mechanistic understanding of these phenomena, especially in complex media such as semiconductor heterostructures, hybrid materials, and chiral materials, is crucial for advancing applications such as LEDs, photovoltaics, photoredox reactions, lasing, and opto-spintronic applications.
The method spectrum for these investigations is vast and includes pump (dump/pump-) probe transient absorption spectroscopy (UV-vis, XUV, IR, X-ray, THZ), multidimensional electronic and vibrational spectroscopy, and time-resolved impedance, cathodoluminescence, chiroptical and microscopy techniques. #SpecEx highlights ultrafast spectroscopic investigations of the photophysical, photochemical, and optoelectronic properties of excitonic materials, novel ultrafast methods, and their respective interpretations and tools.
- Charge separation in hybrid materials for photoredox reactions
- Exciton diffusion/dissociation in assembled nanocrystal films
- Stimulated/amplified emission and optical gain for lasing applica
- Chirality in excitonic materials: CISS, emission, chiral catalysis
- Non-linear optical phenomena
- Spectroscopic data evaluation (computational/data science)
- Time resolved measurements under in situ/operando conditions
- Novel spectroscopic methods
nanocrystal, ultrafast spectroscopy
1. Personal details Prof. Dr. Mischa Bonn Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research Ackermannweg 10 D-55128 Mainz Male; born, 25/01/71, Nijmegen (NL), married +1. Nationality: Dutch (NL) 2. Education Undergraduate: University of Amsterdam; MSc in Physical Chemistry (highest honors), 10/05/93 Graduate: AMOLF / University of Eindhoven; PhD in Physical Chemistry, 18/12/96 Postdoctoral: Fritz Haber (Max Planck) Institut (Wolf/Ertl group), Berlin, Germany, 1997�1999 Postdoctoral: Columbia University (Heinz group) NY, USA, 1998-2001 (totaling ~6 months). 3. Appointments 4/2011-present Director at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz, Germany 5/2013-present Honorary Professor (Chemistry Dept.) University of Mainz 6/2005�present Extraordinary Professor (Physics Dept.) University of Amsterdam 1/2004�3/2012 Group Leader at FOM-Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics 1/2003�1/2004 Scientific Advisor at FOM-Institute for Plasma Physics �Rijnhuizen� 1/2003�9/2009 Associate professor (tenured) at Leiden University (Chemistry Dept.) 8/1999�12/2002 Assistant professor (fixed term) at Leiden University (Chemistry Dept.)
Sascha is a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Physical Chemistry and Head of the Laboratory for Energy Materials at EPFL (Switzerland), while he is also maintaining strong ties with the Harvard community and in particular Winthrop House which he regularly visits as NRT and SCR member.
His team employs light-matter interactions to understand the next generation of soft semiconductors with the overarching goal of maximizing energy efficiency for a sustainable future by unlocking applications ranging from flexible light-weight solar cells & displays all the way to entirely new applications in quantum information processing.
Previously, he was a research group leader and Rowland Fellow at Harvard University. Before starting his lab at Harvard, Sascha studied Chemistry at Heidelberg University (Germany) and completed a PhD in Physics at the University of Cambridge (UK), where he subsequently worked as EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellow.
Dr. Soumen Ghosh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, where he leads a research group focused on the development and application of ultrafast chiroptical spectroscopy. His research aims to uncover the fundamental mechanisms underlying photoinduced chiral dynamics and their interplay with electronic spin and magnetism on ultrafast timescales.
Before joining IISc, Dr. Ghosh was a postdoctoral researcher and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at Politecnico di Milano, Italy where he worked with Professors Giulio Cerullo and Dario Polli on the development of broadband optical activity spectroscopy. He received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University, USA under the guidance of Professor Warren F. Beck, where he investigated ultrafast photophysical processes in biological light-harvesting systems.
James Utterback’s research focuses on ultrafast optical spectroscopy and microscopy of energy relaxation and transport in materials for optoelectronic, photochemistry, and phase change applications.
CNRS Researcher | Researcher; Institute of Nanosciences of Paris; Sorbonne University | 2023 – present
Postdoctoral Fellow | Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow; University of California, Berkeley | 2019 – 2022
PhD in Chemistry | NSF Graduate Research Fellow; University of Colorado, Boulder | 2013 – 2018
B.S. in Physics | Goldwater Scholar & Undergraduate Research Fellow; University of Oregon | 2007 – 2011