The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a Consolidator Grant to Daniele Brida, a researcher and Full Professor in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Luxembourg.
He will receive roughly two Million Euro over a period of 60 months to use sophisticated laser-based imaging technology to study the properties of materials.
Setting up a new laboratory
Prof Brida who joined the University of Luxembourg only in 2018 coming from the University of Konstanz in Germany will use the grant to strengthen his team of researchers and to set up a new laboratory. In his project “Ultrafast tunneling microscopy by optical field control of quantum currents – UpTEMPO”, he will use ultrafast laser-based instruments to study the inner workings of materials.
“This ERC grant will allow me to pursue a very interesting and new research direction and firmly establish in Luxembourg ultrafast techniques to investigate fundamental phenomena in matter,” Prof. Brida explains.
Daniele Brida will develop the technology and the experimental set-up that use very fast laser pulses to induce currents through samples to measure the behavior and dynamics of electrons in nanostructures and molecules. “The objective is to understand the mechanisms that determine the properties of matter with the long-term vision of designing advanced materials for a broad spectrum of applications that range, for example, from photovoltaics to high-speed electronics and sensing,” Daniele Brida adds.
Increasing numbers of ERC Grants
“We are extremely happy about the success of Prof. Brida with this ERC proposal in the interdisciplinary field of laser physics, time-resolved spectroscopy, and surface microscopy,” comments Prof. Ludger Wirtz, Head of the Physics and Materials Science Research Unit at the University of Luxembourg. “It is the fourth ERC grant obtained within the Physics and Materials Science Research Unit and the sixth one obtained by professors of the Faculty of Science, Technology and Communication. It confirms our strategy to hire young rising stars in our faculty.”
University Rector Stéphane Pallage adds: “This success demonstrates the high attractiveness of our University for researchers working at the cutting edge of science and technology. The award of this prestigious grant confirms that our University is a superb place to study science and technology.”
Photos: © Michel Brumat (portrait) / © Daniele Brida et Tobias Rybka
Further information : Ultrafast Phenomena in Condensed Matter