How to submit an application for attending

You can apply through CECAM web-page by including a short motivation and a CV. We still have some limited number of places for attendees who want to present their work in a poster session.

Description

The surfaces of certain metals (e.g. Au, Ag, Cu, Mg, etc) and 2D materials exhibit unique optical properties that allow them to combine their inherent catalytic properties with the enhanced reactivity produced by plasmonic effects [1]. Plasmonic materials can often absorb a huge amount of energy when the incoming light is in tune with the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) frequency or Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SPP). In the last few decades, ultrafast phenomena that occur upon plasmonic excitation have gathered the interest of a large part of the scientific community due to their potential relevance in applications ranging from optical sensors, enhanced spectroscopies, photocatalysis to biomedical applications.  

While plasmonic materials offer many new fundamental and technological opportunities, plasmonic light absorption induces intense local electric fields, local heating, low-lying electronic excitations and coupled ultrafast nonequilibrium dynamics of electrons and phonons [2].  One of the most interesting processes associated with plasmonic excitation is the efficient production of hot electrons as part of a non-radiative plasmon decay channel. These highly energetic electrons have been shown to increase the reaction rate of different surface chemical reactions such as CO₂ reduction [3], water splitting [4], and H₂ dissociation reactions. 

A full theoretical description of light-matter interaction and plasmon-induced ultrafast non-equilibrium dynamics is a formidable challenge that demands an intrinsically multidisciplinary and multiscale approach. Different approaches based on time-dependent Density Functional Theory [5] and many-body perturbation theory [6] have emerged in recent years to address many of the open questions in plasmonics. Further improvements in theoretical descriptions are crucial to optimize SPP generation and amplification in materials, to reduce losses and improve plasmonic lifetimes, as well as to integrate plasmonic effects into semiconductor technology to create new quantum materials [7].  Due to the diverse aspects of this problem, a coherent research community around theoretical plasmonics is only slowly emerging. This workshop aims to foster such a community.