Giulio Cerullo
Events
Giulio Cerullo
Department of Physics, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Introduction to Femtosecond Lasers and Applications & Ultrafast Laser Spectroscopy
Introduction to Femtosecond Lasers and Applications
Femtosecond lasers generate light pulses lasting only a few millionths of a billionth of a second, enabling access to ultrafast phenomena in matter. This lecture will introduce the basic principles of ultrashort pulse generation, amplification and characterization, with emphasis on modern few-cycle laser sources. Applications of femtosecond lasers in science and technology will be discussed, including time-resolved spectroscopy, nonlinear microscopy, precision micro- and nanostructuring, and the investigation of novel materials and biomolecular systems.
Ultrafast Laser Spectroscopy
Ultrafast laser spectroscopy allows researchers to observe atomic, molecular and electronic dynamics on their natural femtosecond timescales. This lecture will present the fundamental concepts of pump-probe and multidimensional spectroscopic techniques, illustrating how ultrashort light pulses can track energy flow, charge transfer and structural changes in complex systems. Examples will be drawn from studies of photoactive biomolecules, photosynthetic complexes, nanostructures and two-dimensional materials. The talk will highlight how ultrafast spectroscopy provides a powerful tool for understanding and controlling light-induced processes in matter.
About the Speaker
Giulio Cerullo is a Full Professor with the Physics Department, Politecnico di Milano, where he leads the Ultrafast Optical Spectroscopy laboratory. Prof. Cerullo’s research activity concerns, on the one hand, pushing our capabilities to generate and manipulate ultrashort light pulses, and on the other hand, using such pulses to capture the dynamics of ultrafast events in molecular and solid-state systems. He has published over 560 papers, which have received >37000 citations (H-index: 96 on Scopus). He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, of the European Physical Society, and of the Accademia dei Lincei and past Chair of the Quantum Electronics and Optics Division of the European Physical Society. He has received two ERC grants (Advanced Grant in 2012 and Synergy Grant in 2025). He has been General Chair of the conferences CLEO/Europe 2017, Ultrafast Phenomena 20,18 and the International Conference on Raman Spectroscopy 2024. In 2023, he received the Quantum Electronics Prize of the European Physical Society. He is the co-founder of two spin-off companies (NIREOS and Cambridge Raman Imaging).
