Speed and performances of contemporary digital electronics are limited by the available device architectures and heat dissipation. Advanced materials such as 2D materials are emerging as possible candidates for designing new structures capable to overcome the current device limitations and foster the establishment of the electronics of the future.
These materials are characterised by exotic physical, electronic and chemical properties, which are neither fully investigated nor understood. In particular, the lack of suitable tools hinders the possibility to study the ultrafast processes unfolding during light-matter interaction. Nevertheless, a clear understanding is required in order to leverage their unique properties. AuDACE aims to enter this unexplored region and investigate ultrafast electron, exciton and spin dynamics happening in advanced materials on time scales below few femtoseconds (10-15 s). To reach this ambitious goal, AuDACE will go beyond the state of the art and develop an innovative pump-probe beamline for attosecond (10-18 s) transient absorption and reflectivity measurements in tandem with a sequential two-foci geometry. This will allow to investigate the elusive physical mechanism responsible for ultrafast electron dynamics in advanced materials.
The project AuDACE is hosted by the Attosecond Research Center at the Physics Department of Politecnico di Milano and financed by the European Research Council within European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme (ERC starting grant No. 848411).
