2025-07-25 –, Main Room 2
Here we present, LightMatter.jl, a flexible and efficient framework for simulations of nonequilibrium dynamics triggered by light. By leveraging Julia’s powerful metaprogramming capabilities, it dynamically assembles and propagates user-defined scattering equations for different physical processes, offering fine control over accuracy and computational cost. Herein, I present its application in the study of laser-driven electron and phonon equilibration in metals.
Light-matter interactions are fundamental to a wide range of natural and technological processes, from photosynthesis and vision to photovoltaics and photocatalysis. Understanding how light drives matter out of thermodynamic equilibrium and leads to electronic and phononic transport phenomena is crucial for developing efficient optical sensors, nanolithography, and quantum technologies. These interactions govern key phenomena such as plasmonic excitations, energy transfer, and non-radiative relaxation, all of which play a critical role in spectroscopy, materials science, and nanophotonics.
LightMatter.jl provides a framework for the simulation of the time-dependent evolution of the electronic energy distribution due to laser excitation in metals. The aim of the package is to enable users to design simulations that capture the physics of interest to their required level of theory. LightMatter.jl uses metaprogramming within Julia to construct a custom coupled set of ordinary differential equations which can then be propagated using DiffEq.jl. The metaprogramming also enables users to develop their own methodologies by exchanging components of the expression that describe different physical phenomena for custom functions or approximations.
Currently the package contains capabilities to perform energy-resolved Boltzmann equations (B. Y. Mueller & B. Rethfeld, Phys. Rev. B 2013) , the Two-Temperature Model (S. I. Anisimov et al., Sov. Phys. JETP 1974), the Athermal Electron Model, and time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE) for a given Hamiltonian in the dipole approximation. The package is designed in such a way that components of the theories such as lifetimes, parameters and matrix elements can easily be implemented and tested while accessing all the other features.
I am a 2nd year PhD student working within Prof Maurer's group. We specialize in non-adiabatic quantum chemistry with a focus on surface and light-driven chemistry. My personal interests are focussed on the light-matter interactions and how light is harvested by materials to then be converted to useful chemical energy.