Attosecond Science on the East Coast Luca Argenti, Zenghu Chang, Michael Chini, Madhab Neupane, Mihai Vaida, and Li Fang Department of Physics & CREOL University of Central Florida

The steady progress experienced by extreme non-linear optics and pulsed laser technology during the last decade of the XX century led to a transformative backthrough: the generation, in 2001, of the first attosecond extreme ultraviolet pulse. This was a revolutionary achievement, as the attosecond is the natural timescale of electronic motion in matter. The advent of attosecond pulses, therefore, opened the way to the time-resolved study of correlated electron dynamics in atoms, molecules, surfaces, and solids, to the coherent control of charge-transfer processes in chemical reactions and in nano-devices as well as, possibly, to ultrafast processing of quantum information. Attosecond research has been in a state of tumultuous growth ever since, giving rise to countless high-profile publications, the formation of a large international research community, and the appearance of new leading research hubs across the world. The University of Central Florida is one of them, establishing itself as the center of excellence for attosecond science on the US East Coast. The UCF Physics Department and CREOL host six internationally recognized leaders in attosecond science, Zenghu Chang, Michael Chini, Luca Argenti, Madhab Neupane, Mihai Vaida, and Li Fang (listed in the order they joined UCF), covering virtually all branches of this discipline, with topics ranging from theoretical photoelectron spectroscopy, to high-harmonic generation in gases and solids, the transient-absorption study of molecular core-holes decay, the time and angularly-resolved photoemission from topological insulators, heterogeneous catalysis control, and ultrafast nanoplasma physics. The attosecond groups at UCF are rapidly growing, thanks to the copious support of several federal agencies, and they are assuming a leadership role in the international community. Indeed, in July 2021 all major player in the attosecond field will convene to UCF on the occasion of the next ATTO conference, which will mark the twentieth anniversary from the first spark that triggered the attosecond revolution. In this webinar, the attosecond groups at UCF will talk about the graduate program at the UCF Physics department and CREOL, they will offer a brief overview of attosecond science as a whole, and they will talk of the research activities under way in each individual group and the possibilities for new applicants.

Biographies of the attosecond-science group leaders at the University of Central Florida (UCF), in inverse order of seniority:

Dr. Chang graduated from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 1982 and earned his Ph.D. at the Xi’an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 1988. Dr. Chang subsequently worked at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the University of Michigan before joining the physics faculty at Kansas State University in 2001, where he was later promoted to the Ernest & Lillian Chapin Professor. In 2011 he move to UCF where he is University Trustee Chair, Pegasus and Distinguished Professor of Physics and Optics. Dr. Chang directs the Institute for the Frontier of Attosecond Science and Technology laboratory. He is an established international leader in ultrafast high power lasers, ultrafast XUV/X-ray science and strong field AMO physics. His research is supported by the DOE, NSF, and ARO.

Dr. Chini received his B.Sc. in Physics from McGill University in 2007 and his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Central Florida in 2012. He began as Assistant Professor at UCF in 2015, and leads the Laboratory for Ultrafast Metrology and Attoscience in Solids (LUMAS), with a focus on Ultrafast and strong-field laser interactions with solids, attosecond physics, and coherent control. His research is supported by the Air Force, NSF, and a DOE CAREER grant.

Dr. Argenti graduated in Chemistry from the University of Pisa in 2001, and earned his Ph.D. in 2008, from the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, with a thesis in theoretical atomic physics. He was Postdoctoral Fellow at Stockholm University in 2009-2010, and at the Autonomous University of Madrid from 2010 to 2016. He moved to UCF as Assistant Professor in 2016 where he leads the Theoretical Attosecond Spectroscopy group, which focuses on the time-resolved ab initio description of atomic and molecular photoionization processes. His research is supported by two NSF and a DOE CAREER grant.

Dr. Neupane received his Ph.D. in Physics from Boston College, Boston, MA in 2010. From was 2011 to 2014 he was postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University, and Director’s Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory from 2015 to 2016. He joined UCF in 2016 where he is currently an Assistant Professor. Dr. Neupane’s research focuses on the electronic and spin properties of new quantum materials such as correlated topological insulators, three dimensional Dirac, Weyl and nodal semimetals, topological Kondo insulators, topological crystalline insulators, and two-dimensional materials investigated using angle-, spin- and time-resolved photoemission techniques. His research is supported by NSF and DOE.

Dr. Vaida received his B.Sc. in Physics from West University of Timişoara. He obtained an ERASMUS scholarship to perform research at Free University of Berlin during his master degree program. After receiving the MS. in Physics, Dr. Vaida obtained a DAAD fellowship for doctoral studies at the Institute of Surface Chemistry and Catalysis at Ulm University, where he earned his PhD degree. Subsequently, he carried out research as a postdoctoral research scholar in the Chemistry Department at University of California, Berkeley. He began as Assistant Professor at UCF in September 2016, where he leads a group on ultrafast electron and molecular dynamics, surface science, thin films, 2D materials, photovoltaics, surface chemistry and catalysis.

Dr. Fang received her Ph.D in Physics from University of Connecticut and did her postdoctoral work at the SLAC national laboratory doing X-ray-free-electron-laser-based research. After her postdoctoral period, she moved to University of Texas at Austin as a staff research associate and then to the Ohio State University for a research scientist position, where her work focused on studying charge dynamics in atoms, molecules and plasmas using table-top ultrafast XUV lasers and infrared lasers. She just joined the Department of Physics at UCF as an assistant professor. Dr. Fang’s group at UCF will investigate photo-induced electron and ion dynamics in atoms, molecules and clusters, where nanoplasmas can form, using high intensity ultrashort laser pulses. Her team will also carry out experiments at national and international free-electron-laser facilities to study the response of atomic, molecular and extended systems to ultra-intense femtosecond x-ray pulses.