Related papers: Ultrafast photomechanical transduction through the…
Ultrafast lattice deformation of tens to hundreds of nanometer thick metallic crystals, after femtosecond laser excitation, was measured directly using 8.04 keV subpicosecond x-ray and 59 keV femtosecond electron pulses. Coherent phonons…
Photonic crystals and metamaterials are two overarching paradigms for manipulating light. Combining the two approaches leads to hypercrystals: hyperbolic dispersion metamaterials that undergo periodic modulation and mix…
Optically trapped nanospheres in high-vaccum experience little friction and hence are promising for ultra-sensitive force detection. Here we demonstrate measurement times exceeding $10^5$ seconds and zeptonewton force sensitivity with…
The investigation of liquid flow at the nanoscale is a key area of applied research with high relevance to Physics, Chemistry and Biology. We introduce a method and a device that allows to spatially resolve liquid flow by integrating an…
In this contribution, we study situations in which nanoparticles in a fluid are strongly heated, generating high heat fluxes. This situation is relevant to experiments in which a fluid is locally heated using selective absorption of…
It is shown that, in the liquid-filled hollow core of a single-mode photonic crystal fiber, a micron-sized particle can be held stably against a fluidic counter-flow using radiation pressure, and moved to and fro (over 10s of cm) by ramping…
Matter-wave interferometry performed with massive objects elucidates their wave nature and thus tests the quantum superposition principle at large scales. Whereas standard quantum theory places no limit on particle size, alternative, yet…
Diffusion of heat in metals is a fundamental process which is crucial for a variety of applications of metal nanostructures. Surprisingly, however, {\em ultrafast} heat diffusion received only limited attention so far. Here, we show that…
Many fundamental processes of structural changes at surfaces occur on a pico- or femtosecond time scale. In order to study such ultra-fast processes, we have combined modern surface science techniques with fs-laser pulses in a pump-probe…
Heat transfer from irradiated metallic nanoparticles is relevant to a broad array of applications ranging from water desalination to photoacoustics. The efficacy of such processes relies on the ability of these nanoparticles to absorb the…
Previous research has shown that gold nanoparticles immersed in water in an optical vortex lattice formed by the perpendicular intersection of two standing light waves with a \pi/2 rad phase difference will experience enhanced dispersion…
Relaxation dynamics of embedded metal nanoparticles after ultrafast laser pulse excitation is driven by thermal phenomena of different origins the accurate description of which is crucial for interpreting experimental results: hot electron…
Ionising radiation interactions in matter can trigger a cascade of processes that underpin long-lived damage in the medium. To date, however, a lack of suitable methodologies has precluded our ability to understand the role that material…
Photophoretic force due to the optically-induced thermal effect provides an effective way to manipulate the light-absorbing particles suspended in ambient gases. However, how this force temporally responds to the intensity modulation of the…
Self-assembly processes allow us to design and create complex nanostructures using molecules as building blocks and surfaces as scaffolds. This autonomous driven construction is possible due to a complex thermodynamic balance of…
We construct an efficient zero-temperature semi-local density functional to dynamically simulate an electron bubble passing through superfluid 4He under various pressures and electric fields up to nanosecond timescale. Our simulated drift…
Light is extensively used to steer the motion of atoms in free space, enabling cooling and trapping of matter waves through ponderomotive forces and Doppler-mediated photon scattering. Likewise, light interaction with free electrons has…
The ultrafast thermal and mechanical dynamics of a two-dimensional lattice of metallic nano-disks has been studied by near infrared pump-probe diffraction measurements, over a temporal range spanning from 100 fs to several nanoseconds. The…
Exciting electrons in solids with intense light pulses offers the possibility of generating new states of matter through nonthermal means and controlling their macroscopic properties on femto- to picosecond timescales. One way to manipulate…
Laser cooling typically requires one or more repump lasers to clear dark states and enable recycling transitions. Here, we have achieved cooling of Be+ ions using a single laser beam, facilitated by one-dimensional heating through…