Non-equilibrium dynamics of correlated quantum materials

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In recent years, physicists, chemists and engineers have been engaged in a race towards developing and exploiting a new class of materials, displaying quantum effects over a large range of energy and length scales, with the objective of revolutionising the development of information processing devices, memories and sensors. These quantum materials derive their properties from the subtle collective interplay of a large number of strongly interacting electrons or atoms. This characteristic renders them extremely sensitive to external stimuli, but also provides a potential avenue to exert practical control over their properties, a precondition to exploit their quantum advantage. Understanding how the emergent properties and correlations in these systems can be dynamically tuned is therefore of great fundamental and technological importance. The advent of ultrafast laser sources has provided scientists an unprecedented tool with which to manipulate quantum materials. It has also opened up a new window into their behaviour under non-equilibrium conditions. Within this approach, an intense laser pulse impulsively triggers excitations to induce processes that may have no quasi-equilibrium equivalents. This technological development has led to concerted efforts to use this phenomenon to probe quantum materials and to exert control over them. My research aims to develop novel concepts and methods to advance the theoretical understanding of photo-excited quantum materials. Using a combination of sophisticated numerical and analytical techniques, I will study key factors influencing their non-equilibrium dynamics: (i) the presence of environmental coupling, (ii) the competition between energy scales, and (iii) the presence of spin-orbit coupling. This approach will inform experimental efforts to tune the properties of quantum materials. This multi-faceted program will help Canada maintain its position as a leader in quantum research and development (R&D). It provides a theoretical roadmap to dynamically enhance the properties of promising quantum materials; a crucial step for the development of quantum devices, the next milestone towards the quantum technology revolution.