Extreme Photon Science and Technology with a Twist

超快激光科学已经并将继续在多个科学和技术领域产生巨大影响。最近授予Donna Strickland教授和Gérard Mourou教授的诺贝尔物理学奖再次证实了这一点，“因为他们产生高强度超短光脉冲的方法”。在过去的30年里，超快激光科学的前沿不断扩大，并开辟了新的应用领域，从基础物理和化学开始，现在正在扩展到加拿大的许多重要部门，如能源，制药和医学。 我过去的发现赠款支持了一项关于极端光子科学与技术（EPST）的研究计划：具有极端特性（如波长，峰值强度和脉冲持续时间）的超快光子源科学，并为利用这种独特光子源的各种应用开发创新技术。多年来，EPST的研究取得了显着进展，特别是在X射线范围（高次谐波产生，HHG）和远红外（太赫兹[THz]频率）。回顾过去，我推进EPST的方法是相当非典型和非传统的，乍一看似乎与共同理解相矛盾或相反。在许多这样的情况下，这种特立独行的方法（有一个转折）导致了意想不到的结果，并在某些情况下开辟了令人惊讶的新机会，从而推动了EPST的前沿。我的研究的长期目标是开拓和推进极端光子科学与技术（EPST），揭示新知识，并应用研究成果找到解决方案，以应对目前在加拿大重要的各个部门面临的挑战。为了实现这一目标，我建议进一步加深我们的理解，从我过去的发现赠款的非典型方法获得的结果，以及设计和研究新的技术在EPST与扭曲。为此，建议的“探索资助”的中期目的是（i）研究强太赫兹辐射与各种物质的相互作用（ii）利用高次谐波光谱技术研究不同材料的自电离态的超快动力学;（iii）开发新技术，以改善和改装一种独特的许褚，即太赫兹化学显微镜，并将其应用于各个部门的研究，例如癌症研究、蜱传疾病检测和藻类毒素处理。“发现”计划的成果不仅可以增进我们的知识，而且还可能产生检测和监测转移性癌症、诊断莱姆病的创新方法，并提供控制细菌产生的毒素的新方法，这些毒素可能会污染我们的水源。

Ultrafast laser science has had, and continues to have enormous impact in multiple areas of science and technology. This has clearly been reconfirmed by the recent Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Prof. Donna Strickland and Prof. Gérard Mourou, "for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses". The frontiers of ultrafast laser science have continued to expand over the past 30 years, and with it opening new areas of application, which started from basic physics and chemistry, and is now extending to many sectors of importance to Canada, such as energy, pharmaceutics and medicine. My past Discovery Grants have supported a research programme on Extreme Photon Science & Technology (EPST): the science of ultrafast photon sources with extreme characteristics (such as in terms of wavelength, peak intensity and pulse duration), and developing innovative technologies for various applications that take advantage of such unique photon sources. Research in EPST has significantly advanced over the years, especially in the X-ray range (high-order harmonic generation, HHG) and in the far-infrared (terahertz [THz] frequencies). Looking back, it turns out that my approaches to advance EPST have been rather atypical and unconventional, which at first sight might seem to contradict or counter common understandings. In many such cases, such Maverick approaches (with a twist) has led to unexpected outcomes, and in some cases opening up surprising and new opportunities, thus pushing forward the frontiers of EPST. The long-term goal of my research is to pioneer and advance Extreme Photon Science & Technology (EPST), to unravel new knowledge and to apply the research outputs to find solutions to challenges currently faced in various sectors of importance to Canada. To achieve this goal, I propose to further deepen our understandings of the findings obtained from the atypical approaches of my past Discovery grants, as well as to design and study new techniques in EPST with a twist. To this end, the mid-term objectives of the proposed Discovery Grant is (i) to study the interaction of intense THz radiation with various materials (such as DNA, semiconductors and graphene) at unprecedented THz fields and repetition rates, and elucidate their mechanisms; (ii) to study the ultrafast dynamics of autoionizing states via high-order harmonic spectroscopy using HHG from laser ablation plume of various materials; (iii) to develop novel techniques to improve and modify a unique equipment, the THz Chemical Microscope, and apply them for studies in various sectors, such as cancer research, tick-borne disease detection and the treatment of algal toxins. Outcomes of this Discovery programme should not only advance our knowledge, but may also result in innovative methods to detect and monitor metastatic cancer, diagnose Lyme disease, and provide novel methods to control toxins produced by bacteria, which may pollute our water source.