On Monday, 12th of May at 11:00 am, there will be a GoLP VIP Seminar by Jerome V Moloney (Univeristy of Arizona). The event will take place at Anfiteatro Abreu Faro – Complexo I at IST.

Title: Extreme Nonlinear Optics and Nonequilibrium Dynamics in 2D and 3D Solids

Abstract: Semiconductor crystal structures, when exposed to intense ultrashort optical or THz pulses, are driven into highly nonequilibrium states that are dominated by higher order many-body carrier correlations. In this talk, I will combine a description of the theoretical foundation of these interactions with experimental realizations of continuous wave and pulsed optically pumped semiconductor disk lasers (SDLs) as illustrations. Historically, we used the theory to design SDLs and experimentally observed a record > 100 W high brightness continuous wave emission from a single chip, a record > 16 W single frequency operation and a room temperature tunable THz source. Under mode-locked pulsed operation we observed a record less than 100 fs pulse duration and demonstrated a novel offset-free tunable mid-IR frequency comb. The microscopic description of both resonant (gain/absorption) interactions and highly detuned THz pulse driven nonperturbative HHG in detuned semiconductors is governed by the microscopic Semiconductor Bloch equations. We will show that higher order correlations beyond the Hartree-Fock limit play a role in both CW and pulsed SDL operation. The second part of my talk will address the theory of quasi-2D TransiOon Metal Dichalcogenides (TMDCs). Because of the very large in-plane 2D Coulomb potential, these materials display prominent room temperature exciton features below the bandgap – in stark contrast to 3D confinement where the later are only observed at cryogenic temperatures. Out of plane interactions with other materials are governed by much weaker Van der Waal’s interactions, making them ideal candidates for sensing and electronic communications. The physics of these materials is captured by the Semiconductor Dirac Bloch equaOons – in contrast to 3D, higher order interacOons such as Auger process and pair correlaOons all appear at the linear level.

Short bio of the speaker: Jerome V Moloney is a Professor of Mathematics and Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona and is Director of the Arizona Center for Mathematical Sciences, an internationally recognized research center in applied mathematics. He is a fellow of the Optical Society of America and a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Prize in physics. Research interests span a wide range of photonics and nonlinear optics fields including ultrashort, high power femtosecond pulse propagation; computational nanophotonics, fiber laser modeling, many-body physics of semiconductor optical properties and modeling semiconductor passive and active devices. He has published more than 400 papers in peer-reviewed journals and has given over two hundred invited papers at national and international conferences.