Chirality is emerging as the new frontier in chemistry, physics, and material sciences. Chirality plays a key role in asymmetric chemical synthesis and governs biomolecular functions such as protein-drug binding and enzymatic catalysis. Several modern emerging research thrusts in materials chemistry engage chiral nanomaterials and chiral plasmonics for efficient solar light harvesting, enantioselective photocatalysis, and spin-based devices. Despite its paramount importance, however, the role of ultrafast chiral light-matter interactions in photoinduced processes is not well-understood.

The overarching goal of our research group is to probe chiral light-matter interactions at ultrafast timescales and leverage them to address pressing challenges in plasmonics, quantum spintronics, and biophysics. Towards these goals, we develop and apply novel chirality-sensitive optical techniques such as broadband femtosecond circular dichroism spectroscopy to investigate photoinduced chirality, spin, and magnetism and their interplay in chemical, biological, and materials systems to address. These studies promise to bring novel new insights about chiral-optical and related magneto-optical dynamics in excited electronic states and will be of great significance for understanding biomolecular dynamics, plasmonic energy harvesting and improving spintronics functions.

To know more about our research directions, please visit our laboratory website. If you are interested in joining our research group, please email me your CV along with a cover letter.

Representative Publications

• Optical Control of Exciton Spin Dynamics in Layered Metal Halide Perovskites via Polaronic State Formation.
  Bourelle, S.*; Camargo F.V.A.*; Ghosh, S*.; Neumann T.; Goor, T.W.V.; Shivana, R.; Winkler, T.; Cerullo, G.; Deschler, F. (*Co-first Authors)
  Nature Communications 2022, 13, 3320. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30953-w
   
• Broadband Optical Activity Spectroscopy with Interferometric Fourier-Transform Balanced Detection.
  Ghosh, S.*; Herink, G.; Perri, A.; Preda, F.; Manzoni, C.; Polli, D.; Cerullo, G.* (*Corresponding Authors)
  ACS Photonics 2021, 8, 2234–2242. DOI:10.1021/acsphotonics.0c01866
   
  Highlighted by BioPhotonics Magazine: Highlighted by LaserLab Europe.
• Interexciton nonradiative relaxation pathways in the peridinin-chlorophyll protein.
  Tilluck, R.W.; Ghosh S.; Guberman-Pfeffer, M.J.; Roscioli, J. D.; Gurchiek, J.K.; LaFountain, A. M.; Frank, H. A.; Gascón, J.A.; Beck, W.F.
  Cell Reports Physical Science 2021, 2, 100380. DOI:10.1016/j.xcrp.2021.100380
   
• How Exciton Interactions Control Spin-Depolarization in Layered Hybrid Perovskites.
  Bourelle, S.; Shivanna, R.; Camargo F.V.A.; Ghosh, S.; Gillett, A.J.; Senanayak S.P.; Feldmann, S.; Eyre, L.; Ashoka, A.; Goor, T.W.V.; Abolins, H.; Winkler, T.; Cerullo, G.; Friend, R.H.; Deschler, F.
  Nano Letters 2020, 8, 5678-5685. DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c00867
   
• Excitation Energy Transfer by Coherent and Incoherent Mechanisms in the Peridinin– Chlorophyll a Protein.
  Ghosh, S.; Bishop, M. M.; Roscioli, J. D.; LaFountain, A. M.; Frank, H. A.; Beck, W. F.
  J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2017, 8, 463–469. DOI:10.1021/acs.jpclett.6b02881
   
  Highlighted in virtual issue ‘Coherence in Chemistry and Biophysics’ of J. Phys. Chem. Lett.
• Torsional Dynamics and Intramolecular Charge Transfer in the S2 (11Bu+) Excited State of Peridinin: A Mechanism for Enhanced Mid-Visible Light Harvesting.
  Ghosh, S.; Roscioli, J. D.; Bishop, M. M.; Gurchiek J.K.; LaFountain, A. M.; Frank, H. A.; Beck, W. F.
  J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2016, 7, 3621–3626. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.6b01642