Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOFJena (Germany) | June 6, 2023
When light hits an atom
Collaborative Research Center at the University of Jena on Light-Matter Interactions to be Continued
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (engl.: German Research Foundation, DFG) is funding the Collaborative Research Center "NOA - Nonlinear Optics on Atomic Scales" at the University of Jena with eleven million euros. Since 2019, research on questions of light-matter interaction has been advanced here. With the new funding, the Collaborative Research Center will now start four more years from July 1. Research in the field of quantum optics is new. The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF is one of the partners of the Collaborative Research Center.
When light hits matter, the interactions depend primarily on the material and the intensity of the light source - a flashlight merely illuminates a stone, while a high-power laser can burn a hole in it. Such interactions are well known and well described. But when light hits nanostructures or atomically thin layers, or when the light intensity is extremely high, a precise scientific description of the interaction is still possible for many systems.
Since 2019, the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1375 "NOA - Nonlinear Optics on Atomic Scales" at the University of Jena has been working on the development of such theories and their practical implementation. With success, as evidenced by the continued funding of the large-scale research project by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. The research funding organization has now approved around eleven million euros to support research into light-matter interactions in Jena and at the partners for a further four years from July 1.
Phenomena of nonlinear optics occur when laser light of extremely high intensity strikes matter. In addition to the original laser beam, the interaction with the charge carriers of the material also produces radiation of shorter wavelengths - an effect that increases with increasing intensity and is therefore referred to as nonlinear.
Prof. Dr. Stefanie Gräfe is spokesperson of the recently extended Collaborative Research Center NOA.
Interdisciplinary tracking of interactions down to the atomic level
In the Collaborative Research Center, the interdisciplinary team led by Prof. Dr. Stefanie Gräfe and Prof. Dr. Ulf Peschel will investigate fundamental nonlinear optical processes of light-matter interaction down to the atomic level. To this end, theoretical methods, procedures and numerical schemes were successfully developed and applied during the first funding phase, and artificial matter formed with atomic precision, such as atomically thin and quasi-two-dimensional layers, also known as 2D matter, one-dimensional nanowires and nanoparticles or quantum dots, and their nonlinear interaction with light were experimentally investigated.
Tailoring the nonlinear optical response
After these systems have been analyzed and described individually, NOA will investigate systems with mixed dimensionality in the second funding phase: These include chemically or electronically modified nanowires or nanofilms, single photon emitters in 2D materials, or atomically thin layered materials. The goal here is to tailor the respective nonlinear optical response.
New to the CRC is research in the field of quantum optics. In addition, communicating the new findings to the general public will be another goal in the upcoming funding phase. An attractive didactic concept is to be developed both for the general public and for schools. To this end, the research team will collaborate with the German Optical Museum, among others.
"With this combined approach, NOA will be able to establish new paradigms for nonlinear optics down to atomic scales, not only in terms of fundamentals, but also in terms of applications", future NOA spokesperson Prof. Dr. Stefanie Gräfe is convinced.
If this succeeds, attractive applications will emerge, ranging from tiny nanolasers and extremely compact X-ray sources to the optical detection of just a few atoms. Eventually, it might even be possible to observe chemical reactions between individual molecules in real time - a dimension into which linear optical systems cannot penetrate.
Within the framework of the Collaborative Research Center, the Friedrich Schiller University Jena cooperates with the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering and the Leibniz Institute for Photonic Technologies in Jena, but also with the Humboldt University Berlin and the Technical University Munich.