IMX Seminar Series - Controlling quantum materials with light

Changing the properties of materials on demand using external parameters is a crucial method: for generating new functionalities and for understanding the conditions which allow for the appearance of emergent order. Using laser light for this purpose is a particularly interesting approach, as it provides
control on the fundamental time scales governing a solid, and may lead to the creation of non-equilibrium steady states without static equivalents. I will present recent experiments demonstrating that laser-driven quantum materials can display room-temperature superconducting electrical and magnetic properties. Progress in this research direction is benefitting from current breakthroughs in both experimental techniques for strongly driving collective modes and extending
new observables to the ultrafast regime, but also from theoretical advancements in the simulation of many-body systems. This paves the way for exploring phenomena ranging from quantum magnetism to topological superconductivity under a new light.

Bio: Prof. Jotzu is currently a tenure-track assistant professor in the Institute of Materials at EPFL. His research concerns the control of quantum materials using intense low-frequency laser pulses and the dynamics of order formation in strongly correlated quantum systems. After reading physics at Oxford,
he became the von Clemm Fellow at Harvard University. He received his doctorate from ETH Zurich and his work there was recognized with the Prize in General Physics by the Swiss Physical Society. Before joining EPFL, he was a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg.