Speaker
Description
Born around the turn of the new millennium, attosecond metrology has provided real-time insight into atomic-scale electron motions and light field oscillation, previously inaccessible to human observation. Until recently, this capability has relied on attosecond extreme ultraviolet pulses, generated and measured in complex vacuum systems. Next-generation attosecond metrology is now about to change this state of matters profoundly. Sub-femtosecond current injection into wide-gap materials can directly probe ultrafast electron phenomena in condensed matter systems and also be used for sampling the electric field of light up to ultraviolet frequencies. Petahertz field sampling draws on a robust solid-state circuitry and routine few-cycle laser technology, opening the door for complete characterization of electromagnetic fields all the way from the far infrared to the vacuum ultraviolet. These fields, with accurately measured temporal evolution, serve as a unique probe for the polarization response of matter. Field-resolved spectroscopy will access valence electronic as well as nuclear motions in all forms of matter and constitutes a generalization of pump-probe approaches. Its implementation with a solid-state instrumentation opens the door for real-world applications, such as early cancer detection by measuring miniscule changes of the molecular composition of blood (liquid biopsy) via field-resolved vibrational molecular fingerprinting.
Ferenc Krausz
1986 Diploma in Electr. Engineering, Budapest Univ. Technology, Hungary
1991 Ph.D. in Physics, Vienna Univ. Technology, Austria
1998-2004 Professor, Vienna Univ. Technology, Austria
2003 Director, Max-Planck-Inst. Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany
2004 Professor, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany
2015 Director, Centre for Advanced Laser Applications, Munich, Germany
Current research foci
Development of ultrafast laser sources and techniques; their applications for (i) exploring solid-state electron phenomena for attosecond metrology, (ii) pushing the frontiers of electron-based signal processing, and (iii) field-resolved molecular fingerprinting for early detection of diseases, such as cancer.
