Thibault JY Derrien

Members of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics (Charles University of Prague), the FZU Institute of Physics (Czech Academy of Sciences) and VSB-IT4I Ostrava have just published a joint paper in the journal Physical Review Letters (American Physical Society). The paper demonstrates the extraordinary coherent control that is possible to have on the light spectrum emitted by a sample of silicon. When irradiated by two laser pulses that are well controlled in phase, the work demonstrates a very high degree of prediction capability and therefore of control of the interaction. This reflects current possibilities in high harmonic spectroscopy and opens perspectives on coherent control for quantum computing. While being on arXiv, the paper has been already been cited by a Nobel Prize awardee from Lund University and by Stanford University, leaders in the field.

One author of the study, Thibault J.-Y. Derrien, lead of the Ultrafast Photonics group (FZU) and of Quantum Dynamics of Systems (IT4I) is delighted to have contributed to the visibility of the country at the highest international level.

• Arxiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.07254
• To appear on the website of the publisher.

Today was deadline for resubmission of the GACR proposals for starting date on Jan 2026. I did resubmit project of last year, given that 7 referees were in favor of funding the proposal.

Thibault JY Derrien, leader of the group of Quantum Dynamics of Systems at IT4I (VSB-TUO University of Ostrava) and of the group of Ultrafast Photonics at FZU Institute of Physics, gave an interview of 30 minutes to Expat Center of Ostrava, mandated by the Laboratory of Quantum Computing of IT4I, University of Ostrava (VSB).

The interview is available on Youtube at the following address:
https://youtu.be/xwsXFzX1kFM?feature=shared

A small description I could not validate has been added aside.
“Thibault might just be the coolest researcher you’ll ever meet! When he’s not deep in quantum computing, lasers, and nanostructuring, he’s out surfing, hiking, and traveling the world. Oh, and did we mention he’s also a drummer in multiple jazz projects, namely the mommy_issues_band? 🤭 Beyond the complex science, Thibault is all about breaking the stereotypical scientist mold. He thrives on meeting new people, afterall this is what kickstarted his career as a senior researcher. Come learn more about what is it like to be a scientist in Czech Republic!”

Dr. T. J.-Y. Derrien has participated in an experiment taking place at the Free Electron Laser “Fermi”, located in Trieste, Italy. Main investigators of the proposal are Prof. Klaus Sokolowski-Tinten (Essen, Germany) and Dr. Jörn Bonse (BAM, Berlin). Topic of investigation was transient observation of LIPSS formation.

While transfer of our machines to the new localization (from HiLASE Centre to FZU Slovanka) is ongoing, we are asking our collaborators for more patience.

Updates:

• Jan 16th: BIATRI-2 machine (128 cores, 512 GB RAM) was now moved to FZU Slovanka premises.
• Nov 26th: BIATRI-1 machine (64 cores, 128 GB RAM, 11 TB data) was now moved to FZU Slovanka premises and is being reinstalled.
• Dec 3rd: data backups from BIATRI1 are being restored. Machine is still not back to production.
• Dec 18th: machine BIATRI1 is back to production. Migration of other servers will restart on January 6th.

From January 1st 2025, the department of Scientific Laser Application (lead by Prof. Nadezhda M. Bulgakova), and hence the group of “Ultrafast Photonics” (led by T. J.-Y. Derrien) will officially move to FZU Slovanka (Prague, Metro Ladvi), within the Division of Optics (led by Dr. Alexander Dejneka).

• The theory group “Ultrafast Photonics” will start with the move from Nov. 1st 2024. This means that access to our production machines may be disrupted for some weeks. The shorter the better.
• The femtosecond lasers and other parts of the laboratory will be moving next year, around April-May 2025.
• Email addresses will come back to the fzu.cz domain in the course of 2025.

Overall, the stay of SLA department at HiLASE has generated several of the best cited publications for the HiLASE Centre. With moving to the Division of Optics, our indicators will be more aligned with those required by the Academy of Sciences.

TJY Derrien presented the results of computational research on the role of realistic experimental conditions on optoelectronic properties of graphene. This research was developed in the frames of OPJAK/”Sendiso” project and MSCA/RISE/”Atlantic”. Results were presented as poster presentation in two conferences:

• Conference on Laser Ablation, Creete. [Program]
• Grapene Week, Prague. [Website | Program is only available using the dedicated application].

The simulation technique at the center of this work enables to treat organic systems in a way that couples electron structure theory and molecular dynamics, at reduced computational cost.

Next presentation in conferences & laboratories envisioned for the moments are:

• Nov. 4th-5th, 2024: 8th IT4I users meeting [Program]
• Nov. 20th, 2024: Max Planck for Structure and Dynamics of matter, Hamburg (Germany).
• Dec. 2024: Faculty of Appl. Mathematics, Technical University of Ostrava (Czech Republic).
• Feb. 2025: Invited presentation at FemtoMAT conference, Mauterndorf (Austria).

The consortium of EU project “EuroCC” organizes “Quantum Computing seminars” on a regular basis.

On September 26th, T. J.-Y. Derrien was honored to present a 1h seminar on “Coherent control of electron dynamics in solids: a milestone for quantum computing?”

The seminar will be made available on Youtube and presented the knowledge gained from Ultrafast Photonics activities over the last 10 years at FZU Institute of Physics.

A proposition of activities for the new research group “Quantum Dynamics of Systems” was also depicted.

The HPC project “FLORENTINA” has been granted 70,000 core-hours on the Karolina supercomputer. This will enable to continue with production of predictions using time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) for solid materials. Several key papers for applications of ultrashort laser pulses are in the pipe! Stay tuned.

The Czech Republic will soon host a superconducting quantum machine, that will enable novel possibilities in various domains of computational sciences and technologies. The machine will be hosted at the Czech national super-computing facility IT4Innovation (VSB Technical University of Ostrava).

In this occasion, the Laboratory of Quantum Computing (LQC) was created (current director is Prof. Marek Lampart) and includes the development of community codes for quantum IT, for science, but also for industry.

There, T. J.-Y. Derrien supervises 2 members from Ostrava among the multidisciplinary quantum laboratory. Within this affiliation, his mission will be to continue publishing in impacted journals with excellent international collaborators, and to attract public and private funds for pursuing the super-computing adventures of the Czech Republic.

LINKS

• Group of the Laboratory of Quantum Computing
• IT4Innovation