Related papers: Few-cycle lightwave-driven currents in a semicondu…
Nonlinear interactions between ultrashort optical waveforms and solids can be used to induce and steer electric current on a femtosecond (fs) timescale, holding promise for electronic signal processing at PHz frequencies [Nature 493, 70…
Ultrashort laser pulses that last only a few optical cycles have been transformative tools for studying and manipulating light--matter interactions. Few-cycle pulses are typically produced from high-peak-power lasers, either directly from a…
Controlling femtosecond optical pulses with temporal precision better than one cycle of the carrier field has a profound impact on measuring and manipulating interactions between light and matter. We explore pulses that are carved from a…
We measure the emission of energetic electrons from the interaction between ultrashort laser pulses and a solid density plasma in the relativistic regime. We detect an electron beam that only appears with few-cycle pulses (< 10 fs) and…
The guiding and control of ultrahigh flux, femtosecond relativistic electron pulses through solid density matter is of great importance for many areas of high energy density science. Efforts so far include the use of magnetic fields…
The carrier emission efficiency of light emitting diodes is of fundamental importance for many technological applications, including the performance of GaN and other semiconductor photocathodes. We have measured the evolution of the emitted…
Half-cycle picosecond pulses have been produced from thin photo-conductors, when applying an electric field across the surface and switching on conduction by a short laser pulse. Then the transverse current in the wafer plane emits…
Single-cycle optical pulses with a controlled electromagnetic waveform allow to steer the motion of low-energy electrons in atoms, molecules, nanostructures or condensed-matter on attosecond dimensions in time. However, high-energy…
We theoretically investigate the generation of ultrafast currents in insulators induced by strong few-cycle laser pulses. Ab initio simulations based on time-dependent density functional theory give insight into the atomic-scale properties…
In recent years, coherent electrons driven by light fields have attracted significant interest in exploring novel material phases and functionalities. However, observing coherent light-field-driven electron dynamics in solids is challenging…
Ultrafast control of electron dynamics in solid state systems has recently found particular attention. By increasing the electric field strength of laser pulses, the light-matter interaction in solids might turn from a perturbative into a…
Circularly-polarized light is well-known to induce, or flip the direction of, magnetization in solids. At its heart, this arises from time-reversal symmetry breaking by the vector potential, causing inverse-Faraday or analogous physical…
Ultrafast electron dynamics in solids under strong optical fields has recently found particular attention. In dielectrics and semiconductors, various light-field-driven effects have been explored, such as high-harmonic generation,…
Interaction of a strong laser pulse with matter transfers not only energy but also linear momentum of the photons. Recent experimental advances have made it possible to detect the small amount of linear momentum delivered to the…
Precise control of the electron phase accumulated during its sub-cycle motion within intense laser fields is essential in strong-field physics, yet remains mostly indirect and complicated so far. In this Letter, we develop a novel approach…
Single-shot coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) with intense short-wavelength light pulses enables the structural characterization of individual nanoparticles in free flight with high spatial and temporal resolution. Conventional CDI assumes…
Intense femtosecond laser pulses interacting with solids can drive electrons to relativistic energies, enabling miniaturized particle accelerators and bright extreme-ultraviolet light sources. In-situ space-time control of these electrons…
We theoretically investigate the effect of broken inversion symmetry on the generation and control of ultrafast currents in a transparent dielectric (SiO2) by strong femto-second optical laser pulses. Ab-initio simulations based on…
Recently, asymmetric plasmonic nanojunctions [Karnetzky et. al., Nature Comm. 2471, 9 (2018)] have shown promise as on-chip electronic devices to convert femtosecond optical pulses to current bursts, with a bandwidth of multi-terahertz…
New features of molecular wires can be observed when they are irradiated by laser fields. These effects can be achieved by periodically oscillating fields but also by short laser pulses. The theoretical foundation used for these…