Arbitrary Optical Waveform Generation Using Molecular Modulation

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。光学和光学工具在上个世纪的科学发展中发挥了关键作用。在该项目中，开发了下一代光学工具。具体而言，研究了一种构造世界上第一个任意光波形发生器的方法。这是一种可以同时产生数百万束激光（每束激光都有不同的颜色）的设备，覆盖红外线、可见光和紫外线光谱区域。利用高度相干的分子振动和旋转来产生这些激光。自1960年激光器发明以来，构建任意光波形发生器一直是最大的挑战之一。 一旦建成，这种装置将在广泛的领域具有重要的应用，对社会产生巨大的影响：（1）通过将所有不同颜色的激光器组合起来，可以合成持续时间短于飞秒（百万分之一秒的十亿分之一）的闪光。因此，可以探测和理解在这些时间尺度上发生的超快电子过程。有了这种新的认识，就可以构建出在光纤通信系统中可能应用的新设备。(2)通过使用所有这些不同颜色的激光器，可以同时研究大量的原子和分子物种。复杂分子的化学结构，包括蛋白质等生物分子，可以更好地理解。(3)使用任意的光学波形，某些化学反应可以被激光控制，其精度前所未有。因此，特定的化学产品（如药物）可以更有效地合成。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Optics and optical tools have played a key role in the scientific development over the last century. In this project, the next generation of optical tools is developed. Specifically, a method to construct the world's first arbitrary optical waveform generator is studied. This is a device that will generate millions of lasers (each with a different color) simultaneously, covering infrared, visible, and ultraviolet spectral regions. Highly coherent molecular vibrations and rotations are utilized to generate these lasers. Constructing an arbitrary optical waveform generator has been one of the biggest challenges since the invention of the laser in 1960. Once constructed, such a device will have important applications in broad areas with a large impact on society: (1) By combining all the lasers with different colors, flashes of light whose duration is shorter than a femtosecond (a billionth of a millionth of a second) can be synthesized. As a result, ultrafast electronic processes that occur on these time scales can be probed and understood. With this new understanding, new devices with possible applications in fiber optic communication systems may be constructed. (2) By using all these lasers with different colors, a large number of atomic and molecular species can be investigated simultaneously. Chemical structures of complex molecules, including biological molecules such as proteins, can be much better understood. (3) Using arbitrary optical waveforms, certain chemical reactions can be laser controlled with a precision that has never been achieved before. As a result, specific chemical products (such as drugs) may be synthesized much more efficiently.