Extreme Photonics - from imaging to control -

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Light plays an essential role in our daily lives. Light allows us to see, and without it, we would have difficulty in performing even the simplest of tasks. Perhaps because of this, we frequently associate light with seeing and imaging. However, seeing is not the only thing that light can do. With the advent of lasers, and especially intense lasers with very short durations, scientists can now control how molecules dissociate, drive bound electrons in matter to induce highly nonlinear processes, and even replicate extreme conditions of matter at the core of giant planets like Jupiter. To date, such experiments have been performed using visible and near-infrared lasers. However, using cutting-edge lasers (such as those at the Canadian Advanced Laser Light Source), one can now make laser-like coherent light sources with high power at both the very short (X-ray) and the very long wavelengths (far-infrared and terahertz radiation). My research has been focusing on the generation of intense light sources at such non-conventional wavelengths, and studying the interaction of these Extreme Photon sources with various matter. This is a new field of research, which I have dubbed “Extreme Photonics”. Some of these works are unearthing fascinating phenomena, and simulations are providing new insights to their mechanisms. Building on my previous Discovery grant, I propose here to extend my research in “Extreme Photonics”, by further increasing the intensity of our Extreme Photon sources, and using them to coherently control and image matter at ultrafast timescales, to advance research in areas and sectors of importance to Canada. A major focus of this Discovery grant will be on CONTROL. For example, I will use Extreme Photon sources to study how one could excite and control vibrations of the virus capsid (the protein shell of the virus that protects its inner genetic material). By finding the sweet spot to break the capsid and inactivating viruses, such information could be used to produce safer vaccines. I will also study how intense terahertz radiation could induce and control local openings in DNA, for potential use in drug delivery. “Extreme Photonics” should also prepare us for the coming era of Big Data. With the amount of data in our world exploding, there is an urgent need to process and read/write data at much higher speeds. We will use our Extreme Photon sources to develop materials and methods for data storage, where switching of bit information could be done at speeds more than 1000 times faster than our current limit. We will also drive graphene (a one-atom thick layer of graphite, earning A. Geim and K. Novoselov the 2010 Nobel Prize) at extremely high speeds and at very high electric fields using our Extreme Photon sources, to see how we could make processors smaller and faster. In the extremely ultrafast limit, we will study how we could use intense and ultimately short pulses to control material processes at the level of electrons for desired outcome. A bound electron “orbits” a hydrogen atom in about 150 attoseconds, where 1 attosecond is a billionth of a billionth of a second. By using intense X-rays with attosecond duration, one could think of controlling the collective motion of electrons in molecules, whose knowledge could be used to design and synthesize advanced materials for harvesting solar energy. As one can see, the potential socio-economic impact of ultrafast science is huge. This is also underlined by the various several-100-million-dollar ultrafast laser projects under development in Europe and Russia. Conversely, harnessing Extreme Photonics could be a Canadian way of responding to such huge facilities, thus contributing in maintaining Canada’s leadership in this highly competitive field.