Grant Program ERC CZ European Research Council - Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports - 01. 01. 2024 - 31. 12. 2025.

Collaboration:

Cergy Paris University

New Technologies - Research Center (NTC) University of West Bohemia in Pilsen.

Project Objectives:

The project investigates quantum technologies and the utilization of special properties of light that can influence the state of electrons in certain materials. A Czech-French research team will specifically focus on the study of so-called chirality, which occurs in physical objects that are not identical to their mirror image. Simplistically, it can be imagined as the difference between the left and right hand. The TWISTNSHINE project was supported by ERC CZ under the Starting Grant for young and promising scientists regardless of their nationality with two to seven years of experience after completing their doctoral studies.

The main global objective of the project is to promote frontier research in the Czech Republic in the field of quantum technologies and the use of exotic chiral properties of light leading to the modification of the spin and orbital state of electrons in topological materials. This proposed project succeeded in both rounds of evaluation for the ERC Starting Grant and led to a deeper understanding and subsequently to innovative applications in the field of new sustainable technologies.

Chirality is a property of a physical object that is not equivalent to its mirror image, such as our hands and plays an important role in many physical phenomena. For example, the response of a material to illumination may differ if the light has circular polarization, either right-handed or left-handed, which is related to the spin quantum number of the photon. This phenomenon, called dichroism, is used to understand the symmetric properties of the material.

Light represents another form of chirality: instead of a plane wave, its wavefront can be twisted into a series of intertwined helices, which rotate clockwise or counterclockwise, corresponding to the orbital quantum number of the photon.

Conversely, matter can also be chiral, in its structural, electronic, or magnetic properties: for example, in twisted bilayers, topological materials, or skyrmions. In this project, I propose to combine the twist degree of freedom in both light and solid matter to explore the role of chirality in the interaction and dynamics of extreme ultraviolet light and matter. I will focus particularly on cases of spin-resolved and time-resolved photoemission spectroscopy.

The project is driven by an interest in basic quantum properties, specifically the interaction of spin-orbit coupling for both photons and electrons, and has the potential to reveal new techniques for dynamic studies of quantum chiral materials. In particular, twisting of light in magnetic scattering will become a new way to investigate and control ultrafast magnetic phenomena in chiral magnets. The twisting of matter in the form of chiral atomic bilayers will be a new area for studying ultrafast spin dynamics in photoemission and will be controlled by ultrafast pulses. Finally, the utilization of chirality binding in light and matter will provide new tools for research with direct sensitivity to chiral properties, such as the Berry phase in topological materials.

Keywords:

chirality; twist light beams; structured materials; spin-orbit coupling; topology; photoemission; magneto-optical interaction.