Dresden 2020 – scientific programme

The DPG Spring Meeting in Dresden had to be cancelled! Read more ...

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

SYWH: Symposium Physics of van der Waals 2D heterostructures

SYWH 1: Physics of van der Waals 2D heterostructures

SYWH 1.3: Invited Talk

Wednesday, March 18, 2020, 16:00–16:30, HSZ 02

Lightwave electronics and valleytronics in van der Waals layered materials — •Rupert Huber — Department of Physics, University of Regensburg, Germany

Using the carrier wave of intense light pulses as a transient bias field to accelerate electrons in van der Waals layered materials, we explore a fascinating world of coherent quantum dynamics, on time scales shorter than a single cycle of light. This includes Bloch oscillations, quasiparticle collisions, and high-harmonic generation. In topologically nontrivial solids, electrons can be accelerated like relativistic bullets over large distances without scattering, which moves minimally dissipative devices at optical clock rates into reach. While lightwave electronics has mainly concentrated on the control of the translational motion of electrons, internal quantum attributes of spin and valley pseudospin have not been switchable on the same scale. In monolayers of transitions metal dichalcogenides, the carrier field of mid-infrared light can move photogenerated electron-hole pairs from the K to the K' valley and thus switch the valley pseudospin in less than 5 fs. Lightwave electronics and valleytronics, thus, opens fundamentally new pathways for ultimately fast quantum control -- especially on the new platform of custom-cut stacks of layered heterostructures. In combination with scanning tunneling microscopy, this concept even allows for atomic scale videography on subcycle time scales.