The toolbox of modern ultrafast science enables unprecedented control over optical fields. The nonlinear interaction of such optical waveforms with matter allows us to control the motion of electrons at petahertz frequencies. The field of research aimed at petahertz-scale signal processing based on light-controlled electric currents is known as lightwave electronics. Progress in this field depends critically on our ability to measure and model how charge carriers emerge in the field of a few-cycle laser pulse and how they move afterward. Addressing this challenge is the main goal of our research.
Working at the intersection of photonics, nonlinear optics, quantum mechanics, condensed-matter theory, and computational physics, we study the physical processes relevant to the sub-optical-cycle photoinjection of charge carriers and their subsequent dynamics, which involves their interaction not only with a controlled optical field, but also with each other and with a crystal lattice. We hope that our theoretical investigations will not only refine theoretical methods but also advance attosecond metrology and shed light on the fundamental limits of electronic devices operating at PHz frequencies.
