TUM: Ulrich Heiz, Aras Kartouzian, Martin Stutzmann
UofA: Frank Hegmann, Karthik Shankar
Doctorial Candidates: Matthias Jakob

The scientific aim is to understand the design of most efficient inorganic hybrid materials photocatalysts. These materials will be synthesized by full control of the properties of each of the components, the semiconductor, the clusters and the chemical modification. The control includes full characterization of the individual components in the respective groups as well as the characterization of the hybrid materials. For the latter, it is of particular importance to elucidate the charge dynamics during illumination that occur on a very fast time scale. This will be done on a local scale by using ultrafast terahertz scanning tunneling microscopy. The complete knowledge of these properties will enable to extract the key properties of each of the component as well as their interplay in the hybrid material for the photocatalytic reactivity, which will be assessed for the water splitting reaction and the CO₂ fixation.