FWF Projekt ZK 91 "Isolated Strong Optical Magnetic Pulse Spectroscopy"Hi iStOMPs team!
I am Diksha. I completed my Ph.D. at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram in December 2024. My Ph.D. thesis involved the study of ultrafast excited-state nonadiabatic dynamics, particularly focused on investigating white light emission using ESIPT chromophores.
Since February 2024, I am part of the subproject C of iStOMPs, and am looking forward to contributing towards capturing the vibronic effects for the spectroscopy simulations.
In October 2024, Hongtao Hu was invited to give a talk in the ICAI2024 conference in Xi’an, China.
During the conference, scientific exchange with peers at the conference provided valuable feedback and opened new opportunities for future collaborations.
Xi’an, one of China’s most historic cities, has served as the capital for 13 dynasties throughout history. It is a city that combines ancient history with modernity.
On 8th of October, Lorenz started his conference travel to China. As the first stop of his itinerary, he visited Prof. Jin Wen and her research group at Donghua University, Shanghai.
In his presentation, Lorenz talked about his research in performing optical absorption spectroscopy with isolated magnetic fields. After a nice discussion, Lorenz was invited to lunch, where he enjoyed authentic Chinese cuisine 🙂 During his stay in Shanghai, Lorenz got some insight in the local research infrastructure of Donghua University and to the work of the students in the research group of Prof. Jin Wen.
After the stay in Shanghai, Lorenz continued his trip to Qingdao, where the 11th Triennial Congress of the International Society for Theoretical Chemical Physics (ISTCP 2024) took place. Lorenz enjoyed the widespread scientific program, networking, and the vivid exchange with colleagues in the same research direction.
In his poster session, Lorenz had the chance to present his research about “Coupling simulations of spatiotemporal electromagnetic fields with simulations of ultrafast photoinduced dynamics” to many conference participants and could talk to other poster presenters in the two other poster sessions.
At the final day of the conference, Lorenz was awarded the best poster prize, which included a lifetime license for the quantum chemistry program Q-Chem and a money prize. Congratulations!
On 29th of September, 2024, some members of iStOMPS went for a hike into the vineyards of Vienna. Although some iStOMPies could not make it, we got reinforcements from the González and Baltuska groups where iStOMPS is located.
From 12.09.2024 to 13.09.2024, Lorenz and Rahul joined the annual DoSChem Student Symposium, which was held the 4th time since the Doctoral School in Chemistry (DoSChem) was established. Next to interesting contributed talks by fellow PhD students from different fields in Chemistry, Lorenz and Rahul had the chance to listen to the inspiring keynote talks of Prof. Dr. Shana Sturla (ETH Zürich), Prof. Dr. Johannes Messinger (Uppsala University).
Certainly, a highlight of the symposium was the talk given by the pioneer of “supramolecular chemistry” and nobel laureate Prof. Dr. Jean-Marie Lehn about chemical steps towards complex matter.
During the symposium, Lorenz and Rahul both presented their posters about “Simulations of Ultrafast Photoinduced Dynamics with Tailored Electromagnetic Fields” and “Accurate and Efficient Multi-Reference Electronic Structure Calculations for Lanthanide Ions using Selected Spin-Orbit Couplings Interaction” to their interested colleagues.
From 2nd to 6th of September, Sebastian and several other members of the AG González went to Braunschweig to attend the 60th Symposium on Theoretical Chemistry. The huge conference was very well organized and offered a broad selection of topics from all fields of theoretical chemistry.
From 27th of July to 6th of August, 2024, Sebastian went to the USA. First, at the International Conference on Coordination Chemistry in Fort Collins, Colorado, he was giving an invited lecture on nonadiabatic dynamics simulations of transition metal complexes. He was also presenting many exciting new developments in the SHARC software package, including iStOMPS’ magnetic dipole transitions and works about lanthanide systems.
Subsequently, he flew to Athens, Georgia, to meet a long-term collaborator and to give a seminar presentation in the group of Fritz Schaefer III.
From the 14th to 19th of July, Liza attended the 23rd International Conference on Ultrafast Phenomena, that is widely recognized among communities of atomic, molecular, and condensed matter physicists, physical chemists, biophysicists, as well as scientists from the fields of lasers, optics and photonics. The conference tool place in Barcelona, Spain.
Liza got a chance to present her poster titled “Generation of Ultrafast Magnetic Fields with Spectrally Tunable Vector Beams for Magneto-Optical Spectroscopy of Eu3+ ions”, that drew a lot of attention from interested colleagues.
From the 30th June to the 5th of July, Liza attended the International Conference on Magnetism in sunny Bologna, Italy. The ICM2024 gathered more than 2000 participants from all other the world and covered a broad range of topics from ultrafast magnetic phenomena and spin dynamics to magnetism of nanoscale systems and functional magnetic materials. Liza presented a talk titled “Generation of Pulsed Isolated Magnetic Fields for Magneto-Optical Spectroscopy of Eu3+” in the section Frontiers in magnetic devices and experimental techniques.
Besides attending the informative sessions, Nobel lectures and tutorials, Liza joined the social events “Students in Magnetism” and “Women in Magnetism”, that brought a lot of insightful discussions and networking.
On 24.05.2024, the Lange Nacht der Forschung (Long Night of Research) commenced in Austria. Lorenz, Rahul, and Sebastian from iStOMPS participated in this fantastic event with an exhibit at the main building of the University of Vienna. Together with members of the Backus group (laser spectroscopy), they presented a hand-built, do-it-yourself-style absorption spectrometer for visible light. We (and the visitors) had lots of fun in discovering how colors work. There even was a detective story about the ominous Prof. U. V. Vis for the kids to solve!
The spectrometer consists of easily available parts: an LED torchlight, a reading lens, two playing cards, a simple optical grating, a strip of white paper, and a webcam. The parts are arranged on a plywood frame with some 3D-printed mounts and contained in a black cardboard box that can be closed. When the torchlight is turned on, its light falls on the grating and is split into a rainbow on the paperstrip. The webcam sends pictures of the rainbow to a connected laptop that visualizes the absorption spectrum of colorful foils or table scatter gemstones.