Attoworld

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advanced multilayer optics

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We aim at pushing the frontiers of designing, fabricating and characterizing multilayer optics for sub-cycle control of infrared-to-ultraviolet laser light.

Volodymyr Pervak — Ever since their invention, aperiodic optical multilayer structures have been driving the advancement of ultrafast laser technology towards ever broader bandwidth and ever shorter pulses. Deposition of dozens of dielectric layers with sub-nanometer accuracy permits manipulation of the spectral phase and amplitude of optical radiation over a full octave and beyond. With the help of design, fabrication, and characterization techniques defining the state of the art, We develop optical multilayers for wide-band light waveform synthesis all the way from the infrared to the ultraviolet, for the pursuit of our Just Cause and – via Ultrafast Innovations – for the ultrafast community world wide. … more
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attosecond metrology 2.0

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Attosecond metrology is about measuring electron motion as nobody could before.

Matthew Weidmann and Vladislav Yakovlev — In solids, electronic motions underlie signal processing. In molecules, they spawn “fingerprints” of their atomic structure and composition. The valence-conduction band and vibrational-electronic energy level separations, respectively, imply their unfolding on sub-picosecond to sub-femtosecond scales. The emanating electromagnetic field contains the full history of the underlying dynamics. By advancing our ability to induce, control, and monitor charge-carrier dynamics with controlled light, as well as our insight into light-electron interactions, we pursue increasing the bandwidth and sensitivity of time-resolved electric-field metrology. This will serve the pursuit of our Just Cause by extending the bandwidth of electric-field molecular fingerprints from 100 THz to several PHz, as well as help pushing the frontiers of electron-based signal processing.… more
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field-resolved infrared science

Mak-Group Pupeza-Group

Generating stable optical waveforms and measuring them with (sub-)attosecond temporal accuracy and single-photon sensitivity will enable spectroscopy at its fundamental limits.

Ioachim Pupeza and Kafai Mak — Molecular vibrations carry, over their entire frequency span of 1-100 THz, tremendous amount of information about the molecular makeup of complex biological systems. Field-resolved spectroscopy of impulsively-excited molecular vibrations now offers a route to efficiently access this information. To this end, we pursue developing powerful ultrashort-pulsed sources of coherent infrared light with multi-octave bandwidth and ultralow-noise and advancing wide-band electro-optic sampling towards single-photon detection sensitivity. We aim to serve the pursuit of our Just Cause by harnessing these infrared technologies for advancing electric-field-resolved molecular fingerprinting of complex biological systems. Towards full coverage of all eigenfrequencies and ever higher detectable molecular concentration range, resulting in higher sensitivity and specificity for sensing abnormalities.… more
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electric-field molecular fingerprinting

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Within the vanguard of probing living systems, we develop electric field molecular fingerprinting for detecting human disease.

Mihaela Zigman — The molecular composition of living organisms is a sensitive indicator of their physiological states. The capability of simultaneously observing changes in concentrations of a variety of molecules embedded in complex organic consortia is thus relevant to biology, medicine and more generally to all life sciences. Capitalizing on the broadband optics, ultrafast sources and precision femtosecond-attosecond field-resolving metrologies of Attoworld, we develop electric-field molecular fingerprinting (EMF) as a new cross-molecular analytical technique for fingerprinting human biofluids. In strategic partnership with the Center for Molecular Fingerprinting, we aim at advancing EMF to a high-throughput method for deep molecular fingerprinting and pursue clinical and populational studies to validate the utility of EMF for early detection of abnormalities in future quantitative health monitoring envisioned in our Just Cause. … more

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high-field lasers and applications group

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Discovery on the smallest scales requires the most accurate tools - such as novel ultrabright particle and X-ray sources.

Stefan karsch — Our group focuses on developing state-of the art ultraintense solid-state lasers and applying them to drive energetic particle and photon sources. We operate the ATLAS Ti:Sa high-intensity laser, and currently upgrade it to deliver 25 fs, 60J, 2.5 PW pulses to serve as the backbone for CALA activities in particle acceleration, high-field and medical physics.
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atomic & electronic motion in 4d

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Let's go to the movies!

Peter baum — All processes, whether in nature or in artificial devices, are on a fundamental level determined by atomic and electronic motion from initial to final confirmations. We apply time-resolved electron microscopy and diffraction with optically controlled femtosecond-to-attosecond electron pulses for measuring atoms and electrons in motion, directly in space and time.
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field-resolved nano spectroscopy

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We push both experimental and theoretical development in ultrafast many-body physics. This combination provides a stimulating environment for students and postdocs.

Matthias kling — FRS: We develop novel Raman micro-spectroscopy techniques based on intense, ultrabroadband laser pulses for bio-medical applications, including early cancer detection. NANO: We push the development of lightwave electronics and nanoscale photo-catalysis by controlling and tracing electron dynamics in molecules and nanostructures upon their interaction with ultrashort light pulses.
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laser ion acceleration

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Laser particle acceleration will enable novel insights in radiation chemistry, biology, and ultimately therapy.

Jörg schreiber — The claim that laser-driven ion beams bare high potential for applications, eventually even for a cost-effective therapy, is commonly based on the fact that the field structures in which the ions are accelerated have considerably smaller dimensions as compared to conventional accelerators. This may promise more compact and therefore less expensive accelerators in the future. But the microscopic dimensions over which electrons and ions are rapidly accelerated by the gigantic fields that are set up by the laser offer even more.
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ultrafast x-ray physics

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Spatial, spectral and temporal shaping of attosecond soft x-ray pulses is a prerequisite for the control and steering of electron dynamics ins solids and nanostructures.

Ulf kleineberg — Our research is focused on the development of ultrafast X-ray optics for spatial, spectral and temporal shaping of attosecond soft X-ray pulses. For this purpose, we operate a nanotechnology cleanroom at MPQ equipped with state-of-the art thin film deposition and nanolithography tools. Ultrafast X-ray optics components are used as key elements in experiments revealing the ultrafast electronic dynamics in nanosystems with the required nanometer spatial and sub-femtosecond temporal resolution.

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