Attosecond dynamics in complex systems

对自然时间和长度尺度上发生的物理过程的调查是科学中最大的挑战之一，也是我研究计划的重点。在化学和生物学中，引发键断裂和键形成过程的电子在阿秒时间尺度上相互作用。成像电子能够控制光化学过程，如能量转换和分子成像技术的发展，从而为早期疾病检测和监测提供新的诊断工具。我的研究项目的长期目标是以阿秒的时间精度拍摄复杂系统中电子的相关和集体动力学。我们将使用最先进的激光技术来细分光脉冲并产生持续时间与电子运动相当的较短的光突发，并使用它们来跟踪复杂分子中的电子-高速突发模式摄影。目前阿秒科学的研究主要限于原子和简单分子。通过将我们的研究扩展到多电子动力学和集体过程开始占主导地位的复杂系统，我们的研究将揭示新的现象，并测试和验证当前的理论工具。使用相同的激光技术，我们可以细分光波长，并将光限制在固体中的纳米尺寸，并诱导材料改性。我们的目标是通过利用宽带隙材料（如玻璃和气相分子）与强光脉冲相互作用的相似性，将阿秒科学带入固体领域。我们的研究将使控制和操纵的材料性能与光的纳米精度，导致新的嵌入式光子器件的发展。

Investigation of physical processes occurring on natural time and length scales is one of the greatest challenges in science and is the focus of my research program. Electrons that initiate bond breaking and bond formation processes in chemistry and biology interact with each other on attosecond time scale. Imaging electrons enables control of photochemical processes like energy conversion and development of molecular imaging techniques than can lead to new diagnostic tools for early disease detection and monitoring. The long-term goal of my research programs is to take snap shots of correlated and collective dynamics of electrons in complex systems with attosecond temporal precision. We will use state-of-the-art laser technology to sub-divide a light pulse and produce shorter bursts of light whose duration is comparable to electron motion and use them to track electrons in complex molecules - a high speed burst mode photography. Current research in attosecond science is mostly limited to atoms and simple molecules. By extending our research to complex systems where multi-electron dynamics and collective processes start to dominate our research will unravel new phenomena and test and validate the current theoretical tools. Using the same laser technology we can sub-divide the light wavelength and confine light to nanometer dimensions in solids and induce material modifications. Our goal is to bring attosecond science into the realm of solids by exploiting the similarity of the interaction of wide band gap materials like glasses and gas phase molecules with intense light pulses. Our research will enable control and manipulation of material properties with light on nanometer precision leading to the development of novel embedded photonic devices.