Associate Professor Søren Ulstrup is among the first recipients of the new Villum Ascending Investigator grant. He is awarded DKK 18,199,485 for the project “Ultrafast orbitronics in planar quantum materials.” The grant is aimed at researchers in the middle of their careers who are in the process of consolidating themselves as research leaders with an excellent research program.

The aim of the project is to establish a new research field within two-dimensional (2D) orbitronics. The fundamental idea is to use the orbital angular momentum of electrons—arising from the orbital motion of electrons relative to atomic nuclei in solid materials—as a basic unit for controlling information. “Orbitronics” can thus be understood as a counterpart to “electronics,” where the electron’s orbital angular momentum replaces its charge as the fundamental property.

The project will make use of and expand the unique photoemission experiments established at the ASTRID2 synchrotron radiation source, where both synchrotron and ultrafast laser sources are combined to visualize orbital currents in quantum materials. Materials with a thickness of only a few atomic layers will be used as building blocks in functional orbitronic components. Basic functionalities will be demonstrated, such as conversion between different types of orbital angular momentum, magnetism, and electronics, as well as new types of memory chips that may eventually complement the conventional form of “RAM” known from our computers and mobile phones.