STROBE Seminar: Prof. Markus Raschke, “Vibrational exciton nanoscopy: a quantum molecular ruler to probe functional materials on their elementary scales”

Abstract: Properties and functions of molecular materials often emerge from intermolecular interactions and associated nanoscale structure and morphology. However, defects and disorder disturb the performance of, e.g., molecular electronic or photonic materials. We address these outstanding problems in several novel combinations of spatio-spectral and spatio-temporal infrared nano-imaging. In this talk I will give an overview of these new developments with a focus on intermolecular coupling induced molecular wavefunction delocalization and its disturbance through structural disorder. This provides for a molecular ruler to imagine structure, coupling, and dynamics of elementary processes on their elementary nanometer-femtosecond scales. I will further demonstrate how Purcell-enhanced and strongly coupled vibrational light matter interactions provide for new modalities in molecular nano-metrology and -sensing. I will conclude with a perspective how these novel quantum-enhanced modalities provide for qualitatively novel functional imaging as new tools to guide molecular device fabrication with improved performance.

Speaker Bio: Markus Raschke is Professor at the Department of Physics and JILA at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His research is on the development of new nano-scale nonlinear and ultrafast spectroscopy techniques to image and control molecular and correlated quantum matter. He received his PhD in 2000 from the Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and the Technical University in Munich, Germany. Following research appointments at the University of California at Berkeley, and the Max-Born-Institute in Berlin, he was on the faculty of the University of Washington, before his appointment at Boulder in 2010.