Everschor-Sitte

This project aims to systematically investigate electromagnetic topological excitations. Driving a metal such as gold out of equilibrium, for instance by appropriate laser-pulse excitations, generates collective electron density patterns whose corresponding plasmonic fields can obey topological field configurations. For plasmonic excitations, or more generally electromagnetic excitations, there are, however, challenges that complicate the application of the concepts of topology including time-varying and even vanishing amplitudes of the involved vector fields. Our goal is to understand the role of topology for such electromagnetic excitations and predict potentially measurable consequences. We want to explore ways to create, manipulate and controllably propagate electromagnetic topological excitations.