Dr. Manish Garg received the Max Auwärter Prize 2022

The Max Auwärter Award from the Austrian Physical Society for students and young researchers is awarded every two years by the Max Auwärter Foundation, Balzers, Liechtenstein. It is aimed at scientists who have published important work in the field of surface physics, surface chemistry or organic and inorganic thin films.

To better understand (and possibly control) fast chemical reactions, it is necessary to study the behaviour of electrons as precisely as possible – in both space and time. However, up to now, microscopy methods have delivered only either spatially or temporally sharp images. By cleverly combining established techniques of tunnelling microscopy and laser spectroscopy, Manish Garg and his team have overcome these obstacles. Utilizing their quantum microscope its now possible to directly map the dynamics of electrons in molecules – how they jump from one orbital to another – for the first time, with simultaneous temporal resolution of 200 attoseconds and sub-Ångstrom spatial resolution. This basic technology provides completely new possibilities for directly observing quantum mechanical processes such as bond breaking/formation and charge transfer in individual molecules.

(Max Auwärter Stiftung)