Extreme Photon Science and Technology with a Twist

超快激光科学已经并将继续对多个科学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显然再次证实了这一点，“表彰他们产生高强度、超短光脉冲的方法”。过去30年来，超快激光科学的前沿不断拓展，开辟了新的应用领域，从基础物理和化学开始，现在扩展到能源、制药和医学等对加拿大重要的许多领域。 我过去的发现补助金支持了一项关于极限光子科学与技术（EPST）的研究项目：具有极端特性（例如波长、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）领域。回想起来，我推进 EPST 的方法相当非典型和非常规，乍一看似乎与普遍的理解相矛盾或背道而驰。在许多这样的案例中，这种特立独行的方法（有一些扭曲）带来了意想不到的结果，在某些情况下还开辟了令人惊讶的新机会，从而推动了 EPST 的前沿。我研究的长期目标是开拓和推进极限光子科学与技术（EPST），揭示新知识并应用研究成果来寻找解决方案，以应对加拿大各个重要部门目前面临的挑战。为了实现这一目标，我建议进一步加深对我过去 Discovery 资助的非典型方法所获得的研究结果的理解，并设计和研究 EPST 的新技术。为此，拟议的发现补助金的中期目标是（i）研究强太赫兹辐射在前所未有的太赫兹场和重复率下与各种材料（例如DNA、半导体和石墨烯）的相互作用，并阐明其机制； (ii) 利用来自各种材料的激光烧蚀羽流的 HHG，通过高阶谐波光谱研究自电离态的超快动力学； (iii) 开发新技术来改进和修改独特的设备——太赫兹化学显微镜，并将其应用于各个领域的研究，例如癌症研究、蜱传疾病检测和藻类毒素的治疗。这一发现计划的成果不仅应该增进我们的知识，还可能带来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.