Date Feb 19, 2025, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm Location Bowen Hall 222 Details Event Description Harnessing Electron Dynamics: Atosecond and Nanometer Scale Control and ObservationAbstract: Attosecond science, which garnered the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics, offers unprecedented insights into electron dynamics by allowing for the control and observation of electrons on their intrinsic time and spatial scales. This field underpins advancements in lightwave electronics by facilitating the manipulation of solid-state responses to intense optical frequency light, achieving current switching at petahertz scales [1]. Such capabilities represent the zenith of electronic speed, approaching the limits imposed by the speed of light. In this presentation, I will elucidate the principles of attosecond science and lightwave electronics, and highlight our recent contributions. These include controlled electron emission and currents [1], precise sampling of light fields [2], and the implementation of a lightwave-driven Haldane model in two-dimensional materials (figure) [3]. Additionally, I will discuss the transformative impact of free-electron lasers that produce intense attosecond pulses across soft and hard X-ray spectra, with the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at the forefront. The recent commencement of its superconducting accelerator, which delivers X-ray pulses at megahertz frequencies, marks a significant milestone. I will explore these developments and the vast scientific possibilities they usher in at LCLS.Bio: Matthias Kling is a Professor of Photon Science and (by courtesy) of Applied Physics at Stanford University and the Director of the Science and R&D (SRD) Division at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Kling received a Diploma in Physics in 1998 and a PhD in Physical Chemistry in 2002 from Goettingen University in Germany. He subsequently was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California at Berkeley and at AMOLF in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. From 2007 Kling led the Research Group on Attosecond Imaging at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) in Garching, Germany, and was Assistant Professor at Kansas-State University from 2009 until 2013. In 2013, he became Professor of Physics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich in Germany and was appointed as Max Planck Fellow at MPQ in 2019. Kling joined Stanford University in 2021, leading the Group on Ultrafast Electronics and Nanophotonics and serving as the Director of the SRD Division at LCLS at SLAC. All seminars are held on Wednesdays from 12:30 -1:30p.m. in the Bowen Hall Auditorium Room 222. A light lunch is provided at 12:00p.m. in the Bowen Hall Atrium immediately prior to the seminar.