Events

Science at the Timescale of the Electron: Coherent X-Ray Beams from Tabletop Femtosecond Lasers

Dr. Margaret Murnane University of Colorado

Goergen 101

Abstract

Ever since the invention of the laser over 50 years ago, scientists have been striving to create an x-ray version of the laser. Advances in extreme nonlinear optics now make it possible to efficiently upshift tabletop femtosecond lasers into the ultraviolet (EUV) and soft X-ray regions of the spectrum, to wavelengths as short as 8 Å. This unique high harmonic (HHG) light source is ideally suited for host of applications in imaging and understanding how advanced materials function. A host of applications in nanoscience and nanotechnology have now been demonstrated using EUV HHG, including full-field microscopes with record 14nm spatial resolution, quantifying how nanoscale energy flow differs from bulk, measuring how fast a material can change its electronic or magnetic state, probing how spin currents can control and enhance magnetization in ultra thin films, and visualizing the dynamic band structure of material.

Bio

Margaret is a Fellow of JILA and a Distinguished Professor in Physics, ECE and Materials at the University of Colorado. She runs a joint, multi-disciplinary, research group with her husband, Prof. Henry Kapteyn. She received her B.S and M.S. degrees from University College Cork, Ireland, and her Ph.D. degree from UC Berkeley. Prof. Murnane with her students and collaborators uses coherent beams of laser and x-ray light to capture the fastest dynamics in molecules and materials at the nanoscale. She is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, the American Physical Society, and the AAAS. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006. She was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship in 2000. As well as the Lamb Award, Margaret and Henry also shared the 2009 Ahmed Zewail Award of the American Chemical Society, the 2010 Schawlow Prize of the American Physical Society, and the 2010 R.W. Wood Prize of the Optical Society of America. Margaret is very interested in increasing diversity in science and engineering.

Location  Goergen 101

Refreshments will be served