The Laboratoire de Physique de l’Ecole Normale Superieure (LPENS) is a joint research unit between the CNRS, the ENS, Sorbonne University and University of Paris. Since the PI, Sukhdeep Dhillon is a CNRS researcher, CNRS will be the only institution involved in the project. The CNRS laboratories are based at ENS, which is classed as the leading higher education and research institute in France. The CNRS-LPENS is a world-class physics institute with an expertise in various fields including condensed matter. The main research domains for the latter are the optical (from the terahertz to the ultraviolet) and electrical properties (from DC to gigahertz frequencies) of semiconductor and metallic nanostructures, ranging from quantum dots, carbon nano-materials to 2D materials. The nano-THz group at CNRS-LPENS that is involved in this project specializes in ultrafast THz spectroscopy and nonlinear THz interactions within intersubband, spin and carbon based devices. The group possesses considerable experience on optics, non-linear and ultrafast optics, as well as know-how associated with ultrafast lasers and THz radiation manipulation in the frequency and time domains. Recent highlights have included ultrafast phase measurements of QCLs, THz nonlinear optics, THz sideband generation with resonant nonlinearities, high power THz pulsed and CW sources, THz pulse polarization control, and optical spin excitations of dilute magnetic semiconductors and ferromagnetic/metal junctions. This know-how is ideal for the role of the CNRS in the generation of laser sources for the FIR through nonlinear interactions in 2D materials. Further CNRS is one of the few groups that have the expertise in phase resolved emission of QCLs on ultrafast time scales, as well as giant nonlinearities in inter- and intra-band excitations which make it ideally adapted for its role in this proposal.
Within the consortium, as well as coordinating the project, CNRS will provide its expertise on the CW and ultrafast linear and nonlinear characterization of QCLs and 2D materials, with a focus on difference frequency generation in TMDs and their integration with QCLs. It will also investigate magneto-optical spectroscopy of TIs as a tool to probe the Dirac matter.
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