Ultrafast Quantum Photonics: From Fundamental Aspects to High-Tech Applications

可以说，到目前为止，超快科学最伟大的壮举之一是开发了能够获得物质基本自由度的基本动力学的工具。特别是，测量场的时间演化的能力为凝聚态物理世界打开了一扇独特的窗口，在那里可以在各个过程的基本时间尺度上观察到准粒子的形成、集体模式及其关联的动力学。这一进展为我们对多体相互作用的微观理解提供了一个飞跃，并推动了新型应用和设备的发展。由于其内在的量子力学性质，如果一个人能够访问量子而不是经典的系统可见，就可以更直接地了解固体各种基本自由度的相互作用。此外，真正的量子场分辨探测的能力将使人们能够直接观察到量子关联在时间域中的演变。这种能力有望开创光与物质相互作用的量子光谱学的新时代。在这项提议中，我们详细阐述了我们的长期计划，以发展一种新的超快量子电动力学的实验方法，该方法也寻求利用这种量子用于尖端应用。我们勾勒出广泛的研究目标，作为追求这一主要思想的中间步骤。为此，我们将活动细分为三条研究线索。首先，我们探索了超快非经典光的新来源。第二个线程开发了用于量子光场分辨传感的新的时域检测方法，最后，在第三个线程中，我们朝着物质的量子光谱和光-物质耦合迈出了第一步。在此过程中，我们还在寻求新的尖端应用，这是我们的新方法所需要的。我们认为，研究的有效途径是将基础研究与世界一流水平的精密仪器和新测量技术的开发协同结合起来。按照我们的设计，我们的计划既是为了推进物理学的基础研究，也是为了发展光子学领域的高科技应用。在这一框架内，我们相信，我们的计划为培养未来一代高素质的工业界和学术界专业人士提供了一个整合良好、多样化和引人入胜的平台。

Arguably one of the greatest feats of ultrafast science up until now has been the development of tools which enable access to the elementary dynamics of the fundamental degrees of freedom of matter. In particular, the ability to measure time evolution of fields has opened a unique window into the world of condensed matter physics, where a formation of quasiparticles, collective modes and dynamics of their correlations can be observed on the fundamental timescales of the respective processes. This progress has provided a leap in our microscopic understanding of many-body interactions and motivated the development of novel applications and devices. Owing to their intrinsically quantum-mechanical nature, the interplay of various fundamental degrees of freedom of a solid can be understood more directly if one is able to access quantum instead of classical system observables. Furthermore, the capability of a truly quantum field-resolved detection would enable direct observation of the evolution of quantum correlations in the time domain. Such ability is poised to seed a new era of quantum spectroscopy of light-matter interaction. In this proposal, we elaborate our long-term plan toward the development of a novel experimental approach to ultrafast quantum electrodynamics which also seeks to harness this quantumness for cutting edge applications. We outline broad research goals as intermediate steps toward the pursuit of this main idea. To this end, we subdivide the activities into three research threads. In the first, we explore novel sources of ultrafast nonclassical light. The second develops new time-domain detection methodologies for field-resolved sensing of quantum light and, finally, in the third thread we make first steps toward quantum spectroscopy of matter and light-matter coupling. Along the way, we are also seeking for new cutting edge applications which our novel approach entails. We believe that the efficient path for research is to synergistically combine fundamental studies with the development of precision instrumentation and novel measurement techniques at the world-class level. As designed, our Program is motivated by both advancing the fundamental research in physics as well as the development of high-tech applications in the field of photonics. Within this framework, we believe that our Program offers a well-integrated, diverse and engaging platform for training future generations of highly qualified professionals in industry as well as academia.