Professor Sonia Coriani

Department of Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark

One of the best ways of exploring, imaging and manipulating molecules in complex environments is through light-matter interaction techniques. The response of molecules to external electromagnetic sources lies at the heart of all spectroscopies used to characterize molecules and materials and can be exploited for technological applications like e.g. in multiphoton imaging, photonics, electronics, light harvesting, light-emitting diodes, drug delivery, sensors, surface coating, catalysis.
Theoretical chemistry is indispensable in the study of light-matter interactions, in order to reveal the microscopic origins of functionality, tune performance and guide synthesis. One needs computational methodologies that can reliably model the molecular response in complex environments in a broad frequency range, from the infrared region (where the nuclear motion determines the response), through the optical region (where we probe the electronic structure and can create novel, functional materials), into the X-ray region (where chemical fingerprinting of the local electronic structure of specific atoms is possible).
In my talk I will present Response Theory as a convenient framework to compute molecular properties and spectra, to explore and theoretically unravel a number of phenomena originating from the interaction of the electromagnetic radiation field with matter.

Recording: