Photonics seminars

Anne L’Huillier explains how the interaction of an intense laser with atoms in a gas generates high-order harmonics and, in the time domain, trains of pulses lasting roughly one hundred attoseconds. These pulses provide a way to investigate electron motion in atoms and molecules through pump–probe measurements. The lecture traces major experimental steps from harmonic generation to the measurement of attosecond pulses, then discusses applications of the resulting techniques. It connects the production and characterisation of extremely short light pulses with the physical processes they make accessible, showing how attosecond science supports the study of electron dynamics.

Anne L’Huillier, Pierre Agostini and Ferenc Krausz explain how light pulses became short enough to resolve electron dynamics. The lectures follow the development of high-order harmonics generated when intense laser light interacts with atoms, the formation and characterisation of attosecond pulse trains, and the isolation of individual attosecond pulses. These experimental advances provide complementary ways to probe processes that occur too rapidly for earlier optical techniques. The programme connects the physical mechanisms of pulse generation with the measurement of subatomic motion and the research possibilities created by access to this timescale, covering the distinct contributions recognised by the 2023 physics prize.