Computational modelling of ultrafast chiral light-matter interactions

The PhD student will use and further develop advanced quantum mechanical many-body computational tools to model, design and interpret the pioneering experiments on chiral light-matter interaction within the Extreme Light Consortium (XLC) of Imperial College Blackett Laboratory. Specifically, the many-body quantum mechanical approach called B-spline algebraic diagrammatic construction (B-spline ADC), developed at the XLC, will be employed to simulate the response of electrons within a chiral molecule to irradiation with tailored femto- and attosecond laser pulses.
Traditional chiro-optical methods rely on the electronic response of matter to both the electric and magnetic components of a circularly polarised wave, i.e. on the chiral molecule "sensing" the helix of the fields' vectors evolution in space. However, the micron-scale pitch of this helix is way too large compared to the angstrom- or nanometre-scale size of the molecules, leading to extremely weak chiro-optical effects (usually below 0.1%).
In this project, we will bypass this fundamental limitation by tailoring the polarisation of the laser field in time, in a way that the chiral response of the molecules does not rely on the helical trajectories of the electric and magnetic field vectors of circularly polarised light. Our control over the temporal structure of the optical field enables the highest possible degree of control over the chiral response of chiral matter: quenching it in one chiral molecule while maximising it in its mirror twin. High-precision quantum mechanical modelling of the quantum many-electron wavepacket evolution that is behind the chiral molecular response is essential to determine the optimal shape of the probing light.