Dr. Mette Gaarde

Louisiana State University

How to Control and Optimize the Generation of Coherent, Ultrafast XUV Radiation

Monday, February 25, 2008

4:00 p.m.

Cardwell 102

Attosecond pulses may well be characterized as the world's fastest camera shutters. These ultrashort bursts of coherent, extreme ultraviolet (XUV) radiation are not produced by tradional laser operations, but are the result of a highly non-linear process driven by an intense infrared laser pulse.

This talk will focus on the generation process that leads to coherent ultrafast XUV radiation. I will discuss how attosecond pulses are produced in the interaction between a macroscopic number of ionizing atoms and an intense, focused laser beam, and give an overview of how collective effects such as phase matching and ionization-induced reshaping are crucial for the generation and preservation of attosecond structures in the  non-linear medium.