Exploring Excitons in Solids with Multidimensional Coherent Spectroscopy

Synopsis

Excitons, which consist of bound electron-hole pairs in solid-state media, are among the most prominent types of electrical excitations that can be created when a material is exposed to light. Exciton dynamics are relevant to the underlying processes of photovoltaic solar cells, light-emitting diodes, quantum cascade lasers, and potentially even quantum computers. From the standpoint of basic research, exciton transitions in semiconductors like gallium arsenide heterostructures constitute an important model system for studying quantum mechanical coupling in solid-state physics-archive. I will discuss recent efforts using optical multidimensional coherent spectroscopy (MDCS) to elucidate the physics-archive of excitons in InGaAs double quantum wells, as well as the potential future directions of MDCS in exciton research.

Biography:
Dr. Christopher Smallwood is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Cundiff Laboratory at the University of Michigan, where he uses ultrafast spectroscopy techniques to study light-matter interactions in solid-state media. He received a PhD in 2014 from UC Berkeley in Physics, where he developed new techniques in time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy aimed at the investigation of cuprate high-temperature superconductors. He is the recipient of a National Research Council postdoctoral Research Associateship award at NIST, and the 2013 Lars Commins Memorial Award in Experimental Physics, awarded annually to the most deserving graduate student in experimental physics-archive at UC Berkeley. He attended Harvard College, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in Physics in 2005.