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Ultrafast photonics is the study of light and its interaction with matter on short timescales, typically less than a picosecond. This includes investigating processes that occur in atoms and molecules, such as the dynamics and correlations between electrons during ionization, and often employs ultrafast lasers or mode-locked lasers.
Sub-cycle confinement and control of phase transitions in strongly correlated materials are theoretically demonstrated, potentially providing a way to investigate electron dynamics on timescales previously unattainable with these materials.
A terahertz-driven photogun with field gradients of 3 GV m−1 is demonstrated by using a few microjoules of single-cycle terahertz radiation. The emitted electrons are accelerated up to 14 keV and can be focused down to 90 μm. The electron bunch is further compressed to 167 fs.
The laser pulses that drive most laser wakefield accelerators have wavelengths near 1 micrometer and peak power > 100 terawatts. Here, the authors drive plasma wakes with 10 micrometer, 2-terawatt pulses, yielding relativistic electron beams with a collimated, narrow-energy-bandwidth component.
A novel, single-shot probing technique visualizes the ultrafast laser-induced solid-to-plasma transition. The entire target dynamics (ionization to overdense plasma) is elucidated by combining solid-state interaction model and kinetic plasma description.
Attosecond core-level spectroscopy is used to probe the ultrafast molecular dynamics of furan at the carbon K-edge, demonstrating its ability to simultaneously probe electronic and vibrational dynamics.
Photonic time crystal refers to a material whose dielectric properties oscillate in time. Here the authors theoretically show such behaviour in the excitonic insulator candidate Ta2NiSe5 under optical excitation and use it to explain the enhanced THz reflectivity recently observed in pump-probe experiments
Sub-cycle confinement and control of phase transitions in strongly correlated materials are theoretically demonstrated, potentially providing a way to investigate electron dynamics on timescales previously unattainable with these materials.
A diffractive axicon (a device that diffracts the input light pulse radially) enables complex correlations between the topological charges and the frequencies of ultrashort laser pulses, resulting in a variety of ultrashort coiled light structures.
Researchers have developed efficient electro-optic tools for manipulating the time and frequency of single photons by taking inspiration from Fresnel lenses.
A transmission electron microscopy technique enables movies of optical near-fields to be recorded with a temporal resolution faster than the oscillation of optical electric fields.