Group members:
Dr. Olga Smirnova
Dr. Alex Harvey
Dr. Zach Walters
Dr. Felipe Morales Moreno
Ms. Maria Richter
Main direction: HHG spectroscopy of polyatomic molecules
Nonlinear interaction of intense infrared laser light with atoms
or molecules converts incident radiation into its very high harmonics,
increasing the frequency of the incident field by one to two orders
of magnitude. This process is referred to as “high harmonic
generation”. The properties of high harmonic emission –
their amplitudes, phases and polarizations – encode spatial
and temporal information about the participating molecules, with
the potential to combine sub-femtosecond temporal and sub-Angstrom
spatial resolution.
The long-term goal of our research is to turn HHG spectroscopy from
exotic method into a spectroscopic tool by systematically analyzing
and checking its ranges of applicability, providing theoretical
foundation and techniques for reconstructing various types of electron
dynamics from experimental observables.
Our short-term goals include:
- Imaging attosecond dynamics of a hole created by ionization,
both during and after ionization;
- Time-resolving and controlling electron rearrangement upon ionization
- Time-resolving and controlling the autoionization dynamics
Theoretical ambitions include understanding and modeling of
- Static and quasi-static Stark-shifts and tunnelling ionization
rates in polyatomic molecules;
- Laser-induced non-adiabatic multi-electron excitations in the
neutral, including excitation of charge transfer and autoionizing
states, which open new ionization pathways;
- Coupling of multiple ionization continua in atoms and molecules
during ionization;
- Modelling and reconstructing multi-electron dynamics on the
sub optical cycle time-scale.
- Electron-molecule scattering in strong laser fields
- Role of electron-ion entanglement in detecting hole dynamics
- Decoupling temporal and spatial information in harmonic spectra
Our theoretical methods include hybrid of strong field S-matrix and
quantum chemistry, R-matrix, SF-EVA approach. The group supports and
develops numerical platform for the calculation of high harmonic observables.
Our recent publications include:
O. Smirnova, Y. Mairesse, S. Patchkovskii, N. Dudovich, D. Villeneuve,
P. Corkum and M. Y. Ivanov, High harmonic interferometry of multi-electron
dynamics in molecules, Nature
460, 972-977 (2009).
O. Smirnova, S. Patchkovskii, Y. Mairesse, N.Dudovich and M.Y.Ivanov,
Strong-field control and spectroscopy of attosecond electron-hole
dynamics in molecules, Proc.
Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 106, 16556-16561 (2009) .
Olga Smirnova, Serguei Patchkovskii, Yann Mairesse, Nirit Dudovich,
David Villeneuve, Paul Corkum, and Misha Yu. Ivanov, Attosecond
Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy of Polyatomic Molecules, Phys.
Rev. Lett. 102, 063601 (2009)
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