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SUMMARY:When do Ultrafast Processes Matter? From Batteries to Strong Locali
 zation in Solar Materials
LOCATION:Chemistry A101
TZID:America/Denver
DTSTART:20250130T160000
UID:2026-04-05-14-55-27@natsci.colostate.edu
DTSTAMP:20260405T145527
Description:About the Seminar:\n\nThe Cushing lab focuses on ultrafast inst
 rumentation science ranging from tabletop X-rays\, to entangled photons\, 
 to new forms of battery spectroscopy. In this talk\, I will briefly introd
 uce our research areas\, mentioning the increasingly “null” space expl
 ored with entangled photons\, and then focus on two of the techniques – 
 tabletop X-ray spectroscopy and ultrafast battery dynamics. For the latter
 \, we use our newly developed\, laser-driven ultrafast impedance method to
  investigate superionic conductors\\' many-body ion hopping mechanism. Pic
 osecond temporal and spectral correlations differentiate electron-ion\, ph
 onon-ion\, and potentially ion-ion interactions. Our first results on LLTO
  show that superionic conductivity does not occur by random thermal motion
  but rather by highly correlated ion-phonon modes in the THz\, contrary to
  current ionic conductor design principles. Reducing charge density on the
  apical O anion using a transient charge-transfer transition also improves
  ionic conductivity on the picosecond timescale of optical phonons. Next\,
  we use transient X-ray techniques to explore the complex photodynamics of
  the Hubbard-Holstein Hamiltonian that describes systems ranging from sola
 r fuel materials to O-LEDs. The ultrafast X-ray pulses measure a mix of el
 ectronic and structural dynamics and\, using our excited state Bethe-Salpe
 ter equation approach\, we can extract time-resolved electron and hole ene
 rgies\, phonon and polaron modes\, and transport phenomena. We measure mat
 erials with a range of electron-phonon coupling strength versus electronic
  and spin correlations to map the Hubbard-Holstein Hamiltonian phase space
  and evaluate its predictive accuracy for new excited state materials desi
 gn.\n\n&nbsp\;\n\nAbout the Speaker:\n\nScott Cushing is an Assistant Prof
 essor at Caltech with a multidisciplinary background spanning Chemistry\, 
 Materials Science\, and Physics. His research focuses on creating new scie
 ntific instrumentation to translate quantum and ultrafast phenomena into p
 ractical devices. The Cushing lab is currently pioneering the use of ultra
 fast X-rays\, electrons\, and entangled photons for a range of microscopy 
 and spectroscopy applications. Scott has been awarded DOE\, AFOSR\, Rose H
 ill\, Cottrell\, W.M. Keck\, DARPA\, and ACS-related Early Career awards. 
 Scott has published over 70 papers that have been cited &gt\;10\,000 times
 .  Scott holds multiple patents\, some of which have led to start-up comp
 anies. 4:00 pm
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