Physics Colloquium:  Paul Corkum, University of Ottawa

• Date
  Wed, Feb 20

  Time
  4:00 PM — 5:00 PM

  Website
  http://forum.sci.ccny.cuny.edu/news-events/calendar-of-events/

  Address
  Marshak
  160 Convent Avenue
  

  Location
  Marshak, MR-418N

  p: 212.650.6832

  Admission
  Free

• Event Details

  "Atto-Science: what we learn by converting many photons into one."

  Pesented by Paul Corkum, Joint Attosecond Science Lab, University of Ottawa and National Research Council of Canada.
  
  Abstract:
  
  A (sheared) interferometer can measure most properties of light so we should be able to measure most properties of the electron [3]. I will show how high harmonic or attosecond spectroscopy can image molecular orbitals [4] or follow chemical dynamics of small molecules [5,6].
  
  Attosecond pulse generation can be understood via 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 construct perturbative nonlinear optics on top of the non-perturbative process [1]. I will show how this allows us develop an all optical method to measure the space-time structure of attosecond pulses [2]. doi:10.1038/nphys2525 (2013).