The Ultrafast Dynamics in Quantum Materials Group, headed by Dr. Junjie He, is based at Charles University in Prague, one of most prestigious universities in Central Europe. The group develops theoretical and computational approaches to investigate non-equilibrium ultrafast physical and chemical processes in a broad range of materials, including quantum materials and nanoscale surfaces and interfaces, with particular emphasis on energy conversion and transfer, spintronics, and emergent quantum phenomena.

In particular, our research explores the coupled dynamics of charge, orbital, spin, and lattice degrees of freedom driven by ultrashort laser pulses, spanning timescales from attoseconds to picoseconds. We aim to understand and control transient quantum phenomena and non-equilibrium states of matter. We maintain close connections with experiments through direct comparison with time-resolved spectroscopic measurements.

Our approach combines quantum-mechanical first-principles methods, including time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) with mixed quantum–classical dynamics (e.g., surface hopping and Ehrenfest dynamics), as well as tight-binding models, atomistic spin models, machine learning and other physical approaches.