Strong light-matter interactions and Optimal control Theory

Recent developments of techniques for molecular manipulation via synchrotron radiation, and short or strong pulse irradiation, offer new perspectives in the study of chemical reactivity. These techniques allow for a controlled production of molecular configurations in highly excited or extremely ionized states that might present novel and exotic reactivity properties. At the same time they allow for the possibility to probe the systems at time scales typical of atomic and electronic motions. The description of strong excitations and ultrafast dynamics depends on electronic correlations and subtle degree of freedom coupling. For this reason, highly refined and complex theoretical tools based on ab-initio techniques beyond the quasi-static and single active electron approximations are strongly required. By combining state-of-the-art ab-initio numerical methods and theoretical analytical tools with experimental validation we work on the development of a quantitative framework for the description and control of non-adiabatic excited states electron and ion dynamics in polyatomic molecules. The goal is to provide the scientific community with a reliable and extensible toolkit capable to deliver accurate predictions on relevant experimentally observable quantities for increasingly complex systems.

Our research interest is focused on several different topics.

Time-resolved spectroscopies:

• Time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy.

• Transient-absorption spectroscopy.

• Time-resolved photo-fragmentation.

Intense laser fields dynamics:

• Photoelectron molecular imaging.

• High harmonic generation.