Infrared Oscilloscopes: Sampling 30-THz Waveforms for Next-Generation Spectroscopy

In electronic devices like field-effect transistors, applied electric fields, up to hundreds of gigahertz in frequency, control electron motion. Recently, it has been demonstrated that the electric fields of ultra-intense laser pulses, i.e. electric fields in the tera- to petahertz (THz to PHz) regime, can similarly control electric currents around gas-phase atoms. In this talk, I will describe recent efforts to extend these early demonstrations of THz- and PHz-speed electronics from gaseous media to solid-state, microelectronic devices. Specifically, I will describe nanoantenna-based devices in which electric currents can be switched on and off by individual oscillations of the electric field of an infrared laser pulse. I will show that these devices can be used to sample >30-THz electric field waveforms in the time domain, and I will overview one of the exciting potential applications of these devices: field-resolved infrared spectroscopy.

Speaker: William Putnam, UC Davis. Weijian Yang, the speaker originally scheduled to speak today, is unavailable.

Watch the lecture here