Harvey Prize Colloquium - Atto-science: what we learn while converting many photons into one |
| TYPE | Colloquium |
| Speaker: | Prof. Paul Corkum |
| Affiliation: | Joint Attosecond Science Lab, University of Ottawa and National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, |
| Date: | 07.04.2014 |
| Time: | 14:30 |
| Location: | Lidow Rosen Auditorium (323) |
| Abstract: | Attosecond pulse generation can be understood through quantum trajectories of an ionizing electron. A trajectory begins from a bound state and returns to the same state after an excursion in the continuum. Quantum trajectories, such as these, map onto an interferometer - an electron interferometer created by light. This mapping makes it obvious that weak fields perturb attosecond pulse generation and thereby we can construct a perturbative nonlinear optics on top of the non-perturbative process. I will show how this allows us develop an all optical method to fully characterize the space-time structure of attosecond pulses. A (sheared) interferometer can measure most properties of light so we should be able to measure most properties of the electron. I will show how high harmonic or attosecond spectroscopy can image molecular orbitals or follow chemical dynamics of small molecules. |