In 2012, the European Research Council (ERC) introduced the Synergy grants, whose funding enables a team of up to four principal investigators to collaborate on an innovative theme for a period of six years.
Eleven projects were selected by the ERC in 2012 across all disciplines.
Among these, the "Frontiers in Quantum Materials Control" (QMAC) project brings together Andrea Cavalleri (Max Planck Institute, Hamburg), Antoine Georges (CPHT-Ecole Polytechnique and Collège de France) Dieter Jaksch (Oxford University) and Jean-Marc Triscone (University of Geneva).
This project focuses on materials with strongly interacting electrons, and in particular on certain functionalities of transition metal oxides, such as superconductivity. The aim of the project is to control these functionalities, either by structuring the material (heterostructures), or above all by optical excitation of vibrational modes, inspired by coherent optical control methods.
