31.03.17 – The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) has awarded a professorship to Dr. Christophe Galland, Ambizione fellow in the Laboratory of Photonics and Quantum Measurements, for his project ‘Quantum dynamics of phonons in nanostructures and molecules’.

The highly selective SNSF professorships are meant for young researchers who intend to pursue an academic career and wish to establish their own team to carry out a research project. The funding period is four years and may be extended by no more than two years.

Starting with a team of 2 PhD students, Christophe Galland will develop new optical techniques to probe the vibrational dynamics inside nanoscale systems such as molecules and nanomaterials.

Ultrashort laser pulses (<10^-12 s) will excite the vibrations via a process in which the vibrational energy increases by one level (one quantum of vibration) while a photon is simultaneously reemitted (one quantum of light). Real-time counting of these photons will enable the indirect measurement of the vibration at the quantum level.

This research aims at improving our understanding of ultrafast quantum phenomena naturally occurring at the molecular scale in processes like photosynthesis and vision. Moreover, the techniques developed in the project will contribute to the advancement of quantum technologies, in particular in the field of optical signal processing.