Join the Optica Ultrafast Optical Phenomena Technical Group for this special virtual event featuring Professor Andrea Cavalleri of the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Germany.

Prof. Cavalleri will discuss how irradiation of certain quantum materials with strong electromagnetic radiation at Tera-Hertz and mid-infrared frequencies can induce transient high temperature states that have striking similarities with equilibrium superconductors. These phases are observed at base temperatures as high as room temperature, underscoring the ability to impress coherence with light. This talk will also cover Prof. Cavalleri’s search for new experimental methods that enable the characterization of these transient phases, to measure optical, structural, electrical and magnetic properties at very fast speeds. Prof. Cavalleri will discuss how to characterize non-equilibrium superconductivity using linear and nonlinear optical spectroscopy, ultrafast transport and ultrafast magnetometry.

About the Presenter: Andrea Cavalleri, Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter

Andrea Cavalleri is the founding director of the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg and a professor of Physics at the University of Oxford. After receiving a laurea degree from the University of Pavia, he held graduate, postgraduate, and research staff positions at the University of Essen, at the University of California, San Diego, and at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He joined the Oxford faculty in 2005. He is best known for his experimental studies of the photo-induced phase transition in materials with strongly correlated electrons, such as transition metal oxides and organic conductors. In recent years, his research group has developed techniques that make use of strong TeraHertz pulses to manipulate directly lattice distortions and other collective modes of solids. Through precise optical control, he has shown that ordered states like superconductivity or ferroelectricity can be induced by light at temperatures far above the thermodynamic transition temperature. Motivated by the need to probe driven materials, he has also been a major driver in the development of ultrafast X-ray techniques since their inception in the late 1990s through their modern incarnation at X-ray Free Electron Lasers. Cavalleri is a recipient of the 2004 European Science Foundation Young Investigator Award, of the 2015 Max Born Medal from the IoP and the DFG, of the 2015 Dannie Heineman Prize from the Academy of Sciences in Goettingen and of the 2018 Isakson Prize from the American Physical Society. He is a fellow of the APS, of the AAAS, and of the IoP. In 2017, he was elected Member of the Academia Europaea.