Hannover Theoretical Quantum Dynamics Group
Light is our most important tool to observe and manipulate the microscopic world because the electromagnetic field of light waves exerts forces that we can control extremely well. When matter is exposed to light, it is the electrons that are immediately driven by these forces. Other degrees of freedom are then affected indirectly so that, for instance, chemical reactions can be triggered.
After several decades of laser development, we now witness the emerging capability to generate waveforms of light that are tailored at the level of the instantaneous electric field on a subfemtosecond time scale (1 femtosecond = 10 -15 seconds) and with arbitrary polarization. Unlike the multi-cycle averaged effect of conventional laser pulses, these new waveforms can exert controlled instantaneous forces in arbitrary direction. The physics and chemistry of quantum systems in the presence of strong tailored
By tailoring fields with sub-cycle and sub-femtosecond precision to electronic and nuclear dynamics, they provide access to attosecond chemistry and physics (1 attosecond = 10 -18 seconds). For example, attosecond pulses generated from strong-field interactions via high-harmonic generation can probe directly the temporal evolution of quantum systems with unprecedented speed. Photons, electrons and ions are emitted from irradiated systems and carry the information about microscopic dynamics. This information
Hannover Theoretical Quantum Dynamics Group