2.1 Ultrafast Electron Dynamics

We combine XUV pulses as short as 100 attoseconds (1/10-th of a millionth of a billionth of a second!) with few-cycle visible or near-infrared (NIR) pulses. We use the pulses to explore – and eventually steer in real-time – the electronic motion in isolated systems. Helped by advanced theory tools, we aim to provide a detailed understanding of the collective and correlated electron dynamics in molecules and nano-particles exposed to strong laser fields.

In recent years, MBI has played a pioneering role in developing all-attosecond pump-probe spectroscopy, which has been a central goal within the attosecond community for the past two decades. A recent breakthrough is the development of all-attosecond transient absorption spectroscopy (AATAS), which combines an extremely high temporal resolution in both the pump and the probe steps with an excellent spectra resolution. In a first proof-of-concept experiment, AATAS has enabled us to measure previously unresolved hole wavepacket motion in xenon ions.

The main objective of the project is to develop the methodology to detect quantum states of XUV light generated by strong-field interaction of light with matter. To this end we will investigate XUV light produced by the high-order parametric generation (HPG) process. This process is driven by strong laser fields, similar to the conventional high-order harmonic generation (HHG), but corresponds to simultaneous emission of two or more photons.