Extreme Photonics - from imaging to control -

光在我们的日常生活中起着至关重要的作用。光使我们能够看到，没有它，我们将很难执行即使是最简单的任务。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，光并不是光唯一能做的事情。随着激光的出现，特别是持续时间很短的强激光，科学家现在可以控制分子如何离解，驱动物质中的束缚电子以诱导高度非线性过程，甚至复制木星等巨行星核心物质的极端条件。迄今为止，已经使用可见光和近红外激光进行了这样的实验。然而，使用尖端的激光器（例如加拿大先进激光光源），现在可以在非常短的波长（X射线）和非常长的波长（远红外和太赫兹辐射）上制造高功率的类似激光的相干光源。我的研究一直专注于在这种非常规波长下产生强光源，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”。其中一些工作正在发掘迷人的现象，模拟正在为它们的机制提供新的见解。在我以前的发现补助金的基础上，我在这里建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，并利用它们在超快时间尺度上连贯地控制和成像物质，以推进对加拿大重要的领域和部门的研究。这项发现赠款的一个主要重点将是控制。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病毒蛋白质外壳）的振动。通过找到破坏衣壳和灭活病毒的最佳位置，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中的局部开口，以用于药物输送。**“极端光子学”还应该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式增长，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，其中比特信息的交换速度可以比我们目前的限制快1000倍以上。我们还将驱动石墨烯（一个原子厚的石墨层，获得A。Geim和K. Novoselov（2010年诺贝尔奖获得者）使用我们的极端光子源在极高的速度和极高的电场下，看看我们如何使处理器更小更快。在极端超快的极限，我们将研究如何使用强烈的，最终短的脉冲来控制材料的过程在电子的水平，以达到预期的结果。一个束缚电子绕一个氢原子“公转”大约需要150阿秒，其中1阿秒是十亿分之一秒的十亿分之一。通过使用阿秒持续时间的强X射线，人们可以想到控制分子中电子的集体运动，其知识可以用于设计和合成收集太阳能的先进材料。正如人们所看到的，超快科学的潜在社会经济影响是巨大的。欧洲和俄罗斯正在开发的各种价值数亿美元的超快激光项目也强调了这一点。相反，利用极端光子学可能是加拿大应对如此巨大设施的一种方式，从而有助于保持加拿大在这一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.