PMI/PCCM SEMINAR SERIES FALL 2024: Michael Chini, Ohio State University

Hosted by Julia Mikhailova
Date
Nov 13, 2024, 12:00 pm1:00 pm

Details

Event Description

Attosecond Electronics: Laser Waveform Control of Electron Dynamics in Materials

Abstract: The ability to synthesize and control the electric field of light with sub-optical-cycle precision has, in the last two decades, enabled the first generation of isolated attosecond pulses and provided access to the ultrafast dynamics of electrons in gas-phase atoms and molecules. Now, the transition of few-cycle laser sources and optical metrology from the near- to the mid-infrared has ushered in a new era of attosecond electronics, in which tailored laser waveforms are used to drive nonlinear photoexcitation and control coherent electronic currents in solid materials. In this talk, I will describe the toolbox of attosecond electronics: a few-cycle laser “function generator” and “optical oscilloscope”, both operating in the mid-infrared, and highlight how they allow control over laser-driven currents in multiple conduction bands of ZnO as well as valley polarization in monolayer MoS2.

Bio: Mike Chini is an Associate Professor of Physics at the Ohio State University. His research focuses on experimental strong-field physics and attosecond dynamics, and involves many aspects of laser science ranging from the development of laser and secondary sources, nonlinear optics, ultrafast metrology, and intense laser-matter interactions. Mike received his BSc in Physics from McGill University in 2007 before beginning graduate school at Kansas State University, where he worked in the J. R. Macdonald Laboratory. He later moved to UCF, where he completed a PhD in Physics in 2012. He remained at UCF as a Postdoctoral Scholar in the group of Zenghu Chang, as a Research Scientist in the group of Martin Richardson, and as a faculty member in Physics from 2015-2024 before moving his group to OSU in 2024. Mike is the recipient of an Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Program Award, the Department of Energy Early Career Research Award, and the Oak Ridge Associated Universities Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, and is a Fellow of Optica.

All seminars are held on Wednesdays from 12:00 -1:00 p.m. in the Bowen Hall Auditorium Room 222. A light lunch is provided at 11:30 a.m. in the Bowen Hall Atrium immediately prior to the seminar.