Manipulating Molecular Electronic Properties by Vibrational Excitations: Novel Spectroscopies and Microscopies

Recent years have witnessed the development of novel powerful experimental techniques, that explore and exploit the coupling of vibrational and electronic degrees of freedom (vibronic couplings), using vibrational excitations to manipulate electronic properties of matter.

These developments originate from different scientific backgrounds with little overlap between the involved communities. On the technology side, these backgrounds comprise ultrafast laser spectroscopy, microscopy and photonics. On the application side, researchers target such different topics as cell biology, solid state physics, non-linear optics, chemical analytics, molecular physics, molecular biophysics or photochemistry.

The seminar aims at bringing together researchers and students from these different backgrounds who are united by the fact that they develop and apply techniques that exploit vibronic couplings, e.g. to access new observables and information in spectroscopy, to implement novel contrast mechanisms in microscopy, which are sensitive to molecular structure, to dramatically extend possibilities for multiplexing in microscopy and imaging, to overcome long standing barriers in selectivity and sensitivity of spectroscopies and microscopy and to develop new means of steering dynamics on the molecular level. At this seminar, we would like to explore the synergies and foster collaborations between these different areas of research.

The conference language will be English. The Wilhelm and Else Heraeus-Foundation bears the cost of full-board accommodation for all participants.