Physics & Astronomy Colloquium – Dr. Susan L. Dexheimer
About the event
The Department of Physics and Astronomy invites all to a colloquium featuring Dr. Susan L. Dexheimer, Department of Physics & Astronomy at Washington State University. Dr. Susan L. Dexheimer will present their talk, “Ultrafast Dynamics of Quasiparticle Formation in Structurally Tunable Materials”, Thursday, September 9th, at 4:10 p.m. in Webster 17.
Abstract: Localization of electronic states as a result of electron-phonon coupling plays a critical role in determining the properties of a wide range of materials: polaron formation has a profound impact on charge transport properties of electronic materials, and formation of self-trapped excitons, or exciton-polarons, dramatically changes optical properties and energy transport mechanisms. I will present time-resolved studies of the dynamics of electronic localization, including the formation and evolution of self-trapped excitons, polarons, and solitons. The experiments are carried out in quasi-one-dimensional materials in which the strength of the electron-phonon coupling that drives the dynamics can be systematically tuned by varying the material composition. The studies use a combination of ultrafast time-resolved techniques that are sensitive to the electronic, vibrational, and structural dynamics that accompany self-trapping, including femtosecond optical spectroscopy in the vibrationally impulsive limit, time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy, and time-resolved X-ray spectroscopy.