MRI: Development of a passive phase-stabilized femtosecond laser system for spatio-temopral imaging and frequency metrology in the infrared

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助的。超快激光技术的最新进展使新的光谱仪能够在频率精度、时间分辨率以及与新的纳米光学技术相结合的超高空间分辨率方面，在全新的光学制度下探测物质。迄今为止，由于在脉冲能量、可调谐、光谱范围和载波包络相位(CEP)控制方面缺乏合适的激光光源，大部分工作集中在可见光谱区域，而红外(IR)和太赫兹(THz)范围的利用相对较少。这一跨学科项目的目标是开发一种新的超快红外激光光源，作为一项广泛的科学计划的基础，该计划旨在利用超古老分子测试基本对称性和物理定律，利用俘获离子实现快速量子逻辑门，开发新的光钟，设计红外等离子体的光学天线，以及通过时空振动成像研究纳米材料中的有限尺寸效应。该仪器位于原子物理、纳米科学和超快光谱学的科学前沿的交叉点，由该仪器实现的高度跨学科研究为研究生和本科生提供了丰富的学习环境。这项研究可以衍生的技术应用包括新的显微镜技术、分子传感器和光学天线。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Recent progress in ultrafast laser technology has enabled new spectroscopies for probing matter in fundamentally new optical regimes with regard to frequency precision, temporal resolution, and in combination with novel nanooptical techniques, ultrahigh spatial resolution. So far, most efforts have concentrated on the visible spectral region with the infrared (IR) and terahertz (THz) range having been taken comparatively little advantage of due to the lack of suitable laser sources with regard to pulse energy, tunability, spectral range, and control of the carrier-envelope phase (CEP).The goal of this interdisciplinary project is the development of a new ultrafast infrared laser light source as the foundation of a broad scientific program aimed at testing basic symmetries and laws of physics using ultracold molecules, implementing fast quantum logic gates with trapped ions, developing new optical clocks, designing optical antennas for IR plasmonics, and at studying finite size effects in nanomaterials by spatio-temporal vibrational imaging. Situated at the intersection of the scientific frontiers of atomic physics, nanoscience, and ultrafast spectroscopy, the highly interdisciplinary research enabled by this instrument provides a rich learning environment for graduate and undergraduate students. Technological applications that can be derived from this research include novel microscopy techniques, molecular sensors, and optical antennas.