Research Program

In order to investigate and understand the physics and chemistry of processes in the real world, a fundamental understanding of atoms and molecules and their interplay with other particles or ensembles and with radiation fields is required. This understanding needs a description in the framework of quantum mechanics, and in order to apprehend, extract and study the quantum behavior, well defined, quantum state selected, isolated atomic and molecular systems are needed. Cold, controlled ensembles satisfy this need, and in the ultra-cold regime the wave-like quantum behavior even dominates the properties of the system and related processes. Enabled by recent experimental technologies and theoretical concepts available at the University of Freiburg and at UBC, the IRTG will through direct collaboration break new ground in this area of research. Based on the variety of activities of the contributing groups, the following topics will constitute the focus of the IRTG:

A.          Atomic and Molecular Interactions and Cold Chemistry

B.          Ultra-fast Dynamics and Quantum Control in Complex Systems

The emphasis in the first topic will be on studying the fundamental interactions and collision dynamics between atoms and molecules with other particles and with surfaces. This study will include neutral particles as well as isolated ions and plasma ensembles – including both few and many-body phenomena. We will utilize capabilities at UBC and UF for the production of both cold and ultra-cold (and quantum degenerate) ensembles. The emphasis in the second topic will be on studying the dynamics and control of energy transfer and/or quasi-particle transport and will include investigations of, for example, electronic and vibration relaxation phenomena and the transport of rotational excitons in molecular ensembles. Several research projects within this topic will involve the study of quantum rotors embedded in strongly correlated environments and of the dynamics of two-body quantum correlations in degenerate ensembles.

A1.  Interactions and Collision Dynamics between Atoms, Molecules and Surfaces

• Imaging the dynamics of Penning reactions at tunable velocities
• Driven ensembles of cold atoms and molecules near surfaces
• Trapping and control of polar molecules by the combination of a pulsed counter rotating nozzle and a superconducting cavity microwave “Imaging the dynamics of cold atom-molecule collisions

A2. Interactions of Atoms and Molecules with Ions in Traps and in Plasmas

• Cooling ions and atom ensembles into the nano-kelvin regime
• Ab initio model for a strongly coupled ultracold plasma: Bridging length scales using a hybrid DFT-MQDT-R-matrix scattering approach
• Exploring ultracold collisions and related quantum phenomena of ion(s) and atoms
• Topology and quantum dynamics of an ultracold plasma in the strongly coupled regime

B1. Electronic and Vibrational Relaxation Dynamics and Energy Transfer

• Two dimensional electronic spectroscopy of cluster-isolated cold molecular complexes
• Time-resolved study of the excitation dynamics in free size-selected and temperature controlled clusters of dye molecules
• Relaxation dynamics of excited He, Ne, and Ar clusters studied by time-resolved coincidence imaging detection
• Real space orbital and vibrational mapping in model photovoltaic systems
• Time dependent orbital mapping of electronic and vibrational dynamics of organic semiconductor molecules from k-space

B2. Controlled Energy Transport in Cold Ensembles

• Coherent vs. incoherent energy transfer in molecular aggregates
• Interactions between molecules trapped in hydrogen matrices
• Control of energy transport in disordered molecular arrays
• Polarons in the excitation spectra of molecules in hydrogen matrices
• Control of light propagation through cold atomic and molecular gases
• Spectroscopic investigation on the energy transfer and relaxation of polar molecules trapped in hydrogen matrices

B3. Control and Study of Quantum Rotors in Strongly Correlated Environments

• Spectroscopy and detection schemes of dopants in helium droplets and rare gas clusters
• Open system theory for rotational wave packet dynamics in structured environments
• Laser spinning of molecules embedded in helium nanodroplets
• Dynamical and spectroscopic properties of benzene super-rotors
• Ultrafast Probe of Two-Body Correlations in Quantum Gases