Extreme Photon Science and Technology with a Twist

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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.