Sub-cycle nanooptics in the strong-field limit

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Rupert Huber, since 1/2018
• Subject Area: Experimental Condensed Matter Physics ; Optics, Quantum Optics and Physics of Atoms, Molecules and Plasmas
• Term: from 2015 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 277164313

In this project, we propose to merge the precision of near-field microscopy with the latest possibilities of extremely nonlinear sub-cycle terahertz optics for the first time. Based on an unprecedented combination of a high-power multi-THz (1 THz = 10^12 Hz) source with an apertureless scattering-type near-field optical microscope (SNOM), we will design atomically strong, phase-locked, few-cycle electromagnetic transients localized in the few-nanometer near-field region of a metallic tip. The intense electromagnetic waveforms will be utilized to explore a novel realm of non-perturbative sub-cycle nanooptics.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Major Instrumentation: Self-starting high-power Kerr-lens mode-locked (KLM) Yb:YAG thin-disk oscillator
• Instrumentation Group: 5700 Festkörper-Laser
• Ehemaliger Antragsteller: Professor Tyler Cocker, Ph.D., until 12/2017