The Project “Fundamentals of Extreme Photonics” addresses light-matter interactions under extreme condition ranging from individual atoms interacting with few photons confined inside photonic structures, to thousands of photons absorbed and emitted during the interaction with intense mid-infrared and terahertz fields.

This research covers a large variety of systems, including atoms, bio-relevant molecules, solids and photonic structures. Quantum effects, non-linearity, materials’ structure and opto-electronic response as well as many other phenomena play an important role in the description of the interaction.

Methods and theoretical modeling focus on the accurate account of these properties and their interplay within brother frameworks involving nonequilibrium dynamics, electron correlations, coupled electron-nuclear dynamics, quantum coherence, and macroscopic effects resulting from microscopic interactions.

Our fundamental and basic research is divided into five core topics: