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contributions to science and technology - Ferenc Krausz


- paving the way towards reliable femtosecond solid-state laser technology with theoretical prediction and experimental demonstration of pulse formation in mode-locked laser oscillators

key papers:
OL1990; OL1991-1; OL1991-2; JQE1992; OL1992-1; OL1992-2; OL 1992-3; OL1993-1; OL1993-2; JQE1994


- co-invention of chirped multilayer mirrors: enabling technology for reproducible generation of few-cycle optical pulses at the cutting edge of optical time resolution (3-5 fs), meanwhile used in thousands of ultrashort-pulse laser systems worldwide as well as for temporal control of attosecond pulses

OL1994-1; JSTQE1998; JOSAB2001; OL2007-1; APB2007; NJP2007; OE2008; OE2009; OE2011

- development of compact sub-10-fs Ti:sapphire laser technology and co-foundation of a company (www.femtolasers.com) for its dissemination; several hundred 10-fs-scale lasers from Vienna are now in use in research laboratories and clinics throughout the world and are instrumental in pushing the frontiers of ultrafast and high-field optical science as well as advancing biological, medical and industrial technologies by pushing the frontiers of nonlinear (e.g. multi-photon and CARS) microscopy, optical coherence tomography, brain surgery and laser microstructuring and -machining, respectively.

OL1994-2; OL1995; OL1996-1; OL1998; OL2004; APB2003; NJP2005-1


- generation of few-cycle optical pulses with atomic-scale to relativistic field strength and control of their waveform (by controlling their carrier-envelope phase), resulting in the first complete control of light waves: enabling technology for attosecond pulse generation and metrology

generation:
OL1997-1; OL1997-2; OL2003; OL2005; NJP2007; OL2007-2; OL2009; OE2010; OL2011
phase control and measurement
OL1996-2; PRL2000-1; APB2001; Nature2003; PRL2003; OL2005-1; NJP2005-2


- nanometer-precision laser micromachining

PRL1998; APB1999


- advancing time-resolved electron diffraction into the femtosecond-attosecond regime

NJP2006; NJP2007; PRA2008; PNAS2010;


- pushing the frontiers of laboratory sources of brilliant XUV/X-rays via few-cycle-driven atomic harmonics and relativistic interactions and by use of pulse-buildup cavities

Science1997; PRL1998; PRL1999; PRL2000-2; PRL2004; Nature2005-1; Nature2005-2; NaturePhysics2007-2; PRL2009; NaturePhysics2009-1; NaturePhysics2009-2; OL2010; NaturePhysics2011;


- generation and measurement of isolated attosecond light pulses, real-time observation and control of atomic-scale electron motion in atoms, molecules and solids with isolated attosecond pulses and synthesized light fields

Science2001; Nature2001; Science2002; Nature2002; Nature2003; Nature2004; Science2004; Science2006; Nature2007-1; NaturePhysics2007; Science2007; Nature2007-2; Science2008; Science2010; Nature2010; Science2011;

These attosecond experiments were conducted in international collaborations with scientists from Austria, Canada, Germany, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, and the USA and gave birth to the basic tools and techniques of attosecond science: the science of electron dynamics and light waves.

With their sub-femtosecond extreme ultraviolet pulses, Ferenc Krausz and collaborators were able to resolve the oscillations of visible light, recognized as "the first attosecond measurement" 1, and to capture the motion of electrons undergoing bound-free and inner-shell atomic transitions in experiments, acknowledged as "the first genuine application of attosecond pulses for time-resolved attosecond spectroscopy" 2 and as studies "heralding a new field of research: attophysics" 3. The tools and techniques demonstrated in these experiments now permit the motion of electrons in the interior of atoms to be traced and controlled and "mark the beginning of the era of 'attophysics' - the study of physical processes on the attosecond time scale" 4.5 These results have been acknowledged among the greatest scientific achievements in 2002 by Nature and Science magazines6 and – along with contributions from other groups – comprehensively reviewed recently.7

1 Y. Silberberg, Nature 414, 494 (2001).
2 M. Lewenstein, Science 297, 1131 (2002).
3 L. F. DiMauro, Nature 419, 789 (2002).
4 P. Bucksbaum, Nature 421, 593 (2003).
5 Editor of Science, Science 298, 2299 (2002).
6 J. Giles, Nature 420, 737 (2002).
7 Ferenc Krausz and Misha Ivanov, Reviews of Modern Physics 81, 163 (2009).

 

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