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The interaction of molecular systems with ultra short laser pulses
provide fundamental examples of complex quantum many body systems
driven far from equilibrium. A highly non perturbative and non adiabatic
coupling exists between electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom which
induces both charge and energy flow within the molecule. These charge and
energy transfer processes occur on the femtosecond timescale, and are of
extreme importance in the design of electronic devices, probes and
sensors, and in the areas of condensed matter and plasma physics, medicine
and biochemistry. The development of non adiabatic quantum approaches is
therefore one of the great challenges in Physics. The challenge comes
about through the diversity of time scales that occur in the problem.
These time scales range from a few femtosecond for electron transfer
through tens of femtoseconds for excitation processes to hundreds of
femtoseconds characterizing the ionic motion. All these processes need to
be described within a consistent dynamical picture.
Two distinct strands of research are currently being taken forward, namely
- laser controlled fragmentation of biomolecules
- laser controlled current flow in molecular scale devices
The basis of these research strands is a time dependent density functional
theory approach implemented in a real space, massively parallel computer
code called CLUSTER that was developed in both the ASC and
.
In the area of laser
controlled fragmentation of biomolecules, the aim of the research is to
develop an experimental and theoretical capability that will lead to a
novel method for peptide sequencing using ultrashort laser pulses. This
work is being carried out in collaboration with Dr Jason Greenwood of the
Centre for Plasma Physics at QUB.
In the area of laser-controlled current flow in molecular scale devices,
the aim of the research is to understand how molecular devices function in
the presence of transient currents and to use this knowledge to fabricate
devices in which current flow can be controlled on ultrafast timescales.
Such knowledge is crucial for application to realistic devices since, at
the most basic level, current switching will be required. This work has
direct connections to the transport work carried out in the ASC as it
combines CLUSTER with the transport boundary conditions that were
developed for that research.
Staff involved
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