Photon Science Seminar: Dr. Luca Agenti, University of Central Florida, "From Atoms to Molecules: Theory on the Heels of Attosecond Electron Dynamics"

Abstract 
Attosecond science has been instrumental in resolving, in real time, photoionization processes and coherent electronic excitations in atoms and molecules. Ab initio wave-function methods are essential to simulate multiple excitations and the entanglement between photofragments. I will illustrate the capabilities of theoretical photoelectron and optical attosecond spectroscopies in atoms. Scalability with respect to correlation and size of molecular targets remains a challenge. To address it, we developed ASTRA, a new code based on ionic transition density matrices. I will highlight recent results on molecular transient absorption, charge migration, and the sequential double ionization of ethylene, combining ASTRA with surface-hopping methods.        

Bio 
Luca Argenti leads the Theoretical Attosecond Group at the Department of Physics and CREOL. The group research focuses on the time-resolved study of the correlated motion of electrons in polyelectronic atoms and molecules. This motion, which unfolds on the attosecond time scale, can only be observed using recent advances in pulse-laser technology and its reconstruction  requires the assistance of numerical quantum mechanical methods, which the group actively  develops. Luca earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry in 2001 from the University of Pisa (Italy, EU), and his Ph.D. in chemistry in 2008, from Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa. He was Postdoctoral Fellow at Stockholm University (Sweden, EU) between 2009 and 2010, and at the  Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain, EU) between 2010 and 2016. He began as Assistant Professor at UCF in 2016, where he was promoted to Associate in 2020.