Optical waveform measurement for attosecond science and trace chemical detection

阿秒科学(1 As=10-18 S)，或称阿秒科学，是唯一能够解决原子和分子中电子快速运动的科学。这项提议的主要目的是将这些基于激光的技术扩展到研究电子在液体和固体中的运动。这些实验将对开辟光-物质相互作用的广阔前沿产生重大影响，这些相互作用是量子和非线性光学、光子学、电光学、凝聚态物理和材料科学。此外，原子科学可以与其他高空间分辨率技术相结合，如原子力显微镜(AFM)，以解决电子在量子井、量子点和纳米尖端等纳米工程对象中的运动。我们提出的技术对外部电场中的阿秒电子运动具有前所未有的敏感性，不仅在下一代电子、电气工程和光子学方面有潜在的应用，而且在分子检测、距离检测和生物传感方面也有潜在的应用。我的研究小组，温莎大学的阿秒凝聚态物质实验(ACME)实验室的目标是创造和利用这些阿秒技术，并将它们应用于凝聚态物质，以发现超快过程，控制工程材料中的电子运动，并开发新的光子学技术。在我的实验室里，我们将模拟、设计和利用材料中的非线性过程来产生和探测阿秒脉冲。虽然飞秒(1飞秒=10-15 S)激光源在商业上是可用的，但将这些脉冲压缩到阿秒状态是具有挑战性的，但对非科学来说是必不可少的。我们将在我的团队中研究和开发这些阿秒脉冲源。通过几个光周期的强场激光脉冲，我们将驱动电流并跟踪电子状态来跟踪电子动力学。此外，我们将利用这些高度非线性过程对微扰场的敏感性作为光场的传感器来重建光学波形，开发出一种具有前所未有的分辨率的含时红外光谱的新工具。对微扰场更高的敏感性可以与其他成熟的技术相结合，如原子力显微镜(AFM)，实现纳米级的阿秒时间分辨率，这是两个不同研究领域的史无前例的结合。此外，通过这项技术，我们将开发一种增强的红外光谱测量，其中分子的振动特征可以区分生物样品，这将对遥感和医学有用。

Attosecond science (1 as = 10-18 s), or attoscience, is uniquely capable of resolving the rapid motion of electrons in atoms and molecules. The principal aim of this proposal is to extend these laser-based techniques to study the motion of electrons in liquids and solids. These experiments will have a major impact in opening up a large frontier in light-matter interactions, namely quantum and nonlinear optics, photonics, electro-optics, condensed matter physics, and materials science. In addition, attoscience can be combined with other high spatial resolution techniques, such as atomic force microscopy (AFM), to resolve the motion of electrons in nano-engineered objects such as quantum wells, quantum dots, and nanotips. Our proposed technologies that have unprecedented sensitivity to attosecond electronic motion in external electric fields have potential applications not only for next-generation electronics, electrical engineering, and photonics, but also for molecular detection, standoff detection, and biosensing. The goal of my research group, the Attosecond Condensed Matter Experiments (ACME) laboratory at the University of Windsor, is to create and leverage these attosecond techniques and apply them to condensed matter to discover ultrafast processes, control electronic motion in engineered material, and develop new photonics technologies. In my lab, we will model, engineer, and exploit nonlinear processes in materials for attosecond pulse generation and detection. Although femtosecond (1 fs = 10-15 s) laser sources are commercially available, compressing these pulses to the attosecond regime is challenging, but essential for attoscience. We will investigate and develop these attosecond pulse sources in my group. Through strong-field laser pulses of just a few optical cycles, we will drive currents and follow electronic states to track electron dynamics. Furthermore, we will take advantage of the sensitivity of these highly nonlinear processes to perturbing fields as sensors for optical fields and to reconstruct optical waveforms, developing a novel tool for time-dependent infrared spectroscopy with unprecedented resolution. The increased sensitivity to perturbing fields can be leveraged with other established techniques such as atomic force microscopy (AFM) for attosecond time resolution at the nanoscale, an unprecedented combination of two disparate areas of research. Moreover, through this technique we will develop an enhanced spectroscopic measurement in the infrared, where molecular vibrational signatures can distinguish biological samples, which will be useful for remote sensing and medicine.