Extreme Photonics - from imaging to control -

光在我们的日常生活中扮演着重要的角色。光让我们看得见，没有光，我们甚至很难完成最简单的任务。也许正因为如此，我们经常将光与视觉和成像联系在一起。然而，看到并不是光唯一能做的事情。随着激光的出现，尤其是持续时间非常短的强激光的出现，科学家们现在可以控制分子如何解离，驱动物质中的束缚电子来引发高度非线性的过程，甚至可以复制木星等巨型行星核心物质的极端条件。到目前为止，这些实验是使用可见光和近红外激光进行的。然而，使用尖端激光(如加拿大先进激光光源的激光)，人们现在可以制造出在极短波长(X射线)和极长波长(远红外和太赫兹辐射)下都具有高功率的类似激光的相干光源。我的研究一直集中在这种非常规波长的强光源的产生上，并研究这些极端光子源与各种物质的相互作用。这是一个新的研究领域，我称之为“极端光子学”。其中一些工作正在揭示令人着迷的现象，模拟正在为它们的机制提供新的见解。在我之前的发现拨款的基础上，我在这里提议通过进一步增加我们的极端光子源的强度来扩展我在“极端光子学”方面的研究，并使用它们来以超快的时间尺度连贯地控制物质并对其成像，以推进对加拿大重要的领域和部门的研究。发现号拨款的主要重点将放在控制上。例如，我将使用极端光子源来研究如何激发和控制病毒衣壳(保护其内部遗传物质的蛋白质外壳)的振动。通过找到打破衣壳和灭活病毒的最佳部位，这些信息可以用于生产更安全的疫苗。我还将研究强烈的太赫兹辐射如何诱导和控制DNA的局部开口，以便潜在地用于药物输送。《极限光子学》也应该让我们为即将到来的大数据时代做好准备。随着世界上数据量的爆炸性增长，迫切需要以更高的速度处理和读取/写入数据。我们将使用我们的极端光子源来开发数据存储的材料和方法，在这种材料和方法中，比特信息的切换速度可以比我们目前的限制快1000倍以上。我们还将使用我们的极端光子源，以极高的速度和极高的电场驱动石墨烯(一种单原子厚度的石墨层，为A.Geim和K.Novoselov赢得2010年诺贝尔奖)，看看如何才能让处理器更小、更快。在极端超快的极限下，我们将研究如何使用强烈的、最终是短的脉冲来控制物质过程，在电子水平上实现预期的结果。束缚电子围绕一个氢原子运行大约150阿秒，其中1阿秒是十亿分之一秒。通过使用持续时间为阿秒的强X射线，人们可以想到控制分子中电子的集体运动，这些分子的知识可以用来设计和合成用于收集太阳能的先进材料。由此可见，超快科学潜在的社会经济影响是巨大的。欧洲和俄罗斯正在开发的各种耗资数亿美元的超快激光项目也突显了这一点。相反，利用Extreme Photonics可能是加拿大应对如此巨大的设施的一种方式，从而有助于保持加拿大在这个竞争激烈的领域的领导地位。

Light plays an essential role in our daily lives. Light allows us to see, and without it, we would have difficulty in performing even the simplest of tasks. Perhaps because of this, we frequently associate light with seeing and imaging. However, seeing is not the only thing that light can do. With the advent of lasers, and especially intense lasers with very short durations, scientists can now control how molecules dissociate, drive bound electrons in matter to induce highly nonlinear processes, and even replicate extreme conditions of matter at the core of giant planets like Jupiter.To date, such experiments have been performed using visible and near-infrared lasers. However, using cutting-edge lasers (such as those at the Canadian Advanced Laser Light Source), one can now make laser-like coherent light sources with high power at both the very short (X-ray) and the very long wavelengths (far-infrared and terahertz radiation). My research has been focusing on the generation of intense light sources at such non-conventional wavelengths, and studying the interaction of these Extreme Photon sources with various matter. This is a new field of research, which I have dubbed “Extreme Photonics”. Some of these works are unearthing fascinating phenomena, and simulations are providing new insights to their mechanisms.Building on my previous Discovery grant, I propose here to extend my research in “Extreme Photonics”, by further increasing the intensity of our Extreme Photon sources, and using them to coherently control and image matter at ultrafast timescales, to advance research in areas and sectors of importance to Canada. A major focus of this Discovery grant will be on CONTROL. For example, I will use Extreme Photon sources to study how one could excite and control vibrations of the virus capsid (the protein shell of the virus that protects its inner genetic material). By finding the sweet spot to break the capsid and inactivating viruses, such information could be used to produce safer vaccines. I will also study how intense terahertz radiation could induce and control local openings in DNA, for potential use in drug delivery. “Extreme Photonics” should also prepare us for the coming era of Big Data. With the amount of data in our world exploding, there is an urgent need to process and read/write data at much higher speeds. We will use our Extreme Photon sources to develop materials and methods for data storage, where switching of bit information could be done at speeds more than 1000 times faster than our current limit. We will also drive graphene (a one-atom thick layer of graphite, earning A. Geim and K. Novoselov the 2010 Nobel Prize) at extremely high speeds and at very high electric fields using our Extreme Photon sources, to see how we could make processors smaller and faster.In the extremely ultrafast limit, we will study how we could use intense and ultimately short pulses to control material processes at the level of electrons for desired outcome. A bound electron “orbits” a hydrogen atom in about 150 attoseconds, where 1 attosecond is a billionth of a billionth of a second. By using intense X-rays with attosecond duration, one could think of controlling the collective motion of electrons in molecules, whose knowledge could be used to design and synthesize advanced materials for harvesting solar energy.As one can see, the potential socio-economic impact of ultrafast science is huge. This is also underlined by the various several-100-million-dollar ultrafast laser projects under development in Europe and Russia. Conversely, harnessing Extreme Photonics could be a Canadian way of responding to such huge facilities, thus contributing in maintaining Canada’s leadership in this highly competitive field.