Liquid crystals meet THz spectroscopy and more...
Dr. Laura Cattaneo
Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany
cattaneo@mpi-hd.mpg.de
Liquid Crystals are a key material in the realm of soft matter, occupying a spot between solids and liquids. They self-assemble, giving rise to new phases of matter in which they show ordered and disordered properties, such as the Smectic A phase which forms layers of oriented rod-like molecules, but lacks intralayer order. Dynamics in Liquid Crystals are well explored down to nanosecond time scales, but notably beyond this scale little is explored. In 2015 we demonstrated that via coherent excitation of librational modes upon interaction with IR pulses variation in the refractive index as fast as 500 fs could be observed, triggered by stimulated Raman interaction. In this talk I will introduce the audience to the liquid crystal world and how we intend to study them in the ultrafast time scale, from pico- down to attosecond. Preliminary results on THz pump-optical probe measurements and technical approaches to expose LCs to strong field interaction for high harmonic generation processes, will be included in the discussion.
Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany
cattaneo@mpi-hd.mpg.de
Liquid Crystals are a key material in the realm of soft matter, occupying a spot between solids and liquids. They self-assemble, giving rise to new phases of matter in which they show ordered and disordered properties, such as the Smectic A phase which forms layers of oriented rod-like molecules, but lacks intralayer order. Dynamics in Liquid Crystals are well explored down to nanosecond time scales, but notably beyond this scale little is explored. In 2015 we demonstrated that via coherent excitation of librational modes upon interaction with IR pulses variation in the refractive index as fast as 500 fs could be observed, triggered by stimulated Raman interaction. In this talk I will introduce the audience to the liquid crystal world and how we intend to study them in the ultrafast time scale, from pico- down to attosecond. Preliminary results on THz pump-optical probe measurements and technical approaches to expose LCs to strong field interaction for high harmonic generation processes, will be included in the discussion.
