Attosecond molecular spectroscopies with XUV harmonic radiation

by Alfred Maquet (Universite P. et M. Curie , Paris)

Tuesday 23 Aug 2011, 14:30 → 15:30 Europe/Stockholm

Oskar Klein Auditorium

When driven by an intense pulse of an infrared (IR) laser, molecules emit coherent radiations composed of harmonics of the pump laser, with frequencies ranging from ultraviolet (UV) up to soft X-rays. In the time domain, these harmonics are emitted during extremely short time windows, with durations in the attosecond range. One can distinguish two types of applications of these new sources of radiations: i) Analyzing high harmonic spectra: They provide original informations on the electronic structure of the outer orbitals that are active in the generation process; ii) Using the attosecond pulses of Extreme Ultra-Violet (XUV) harmonics within a pump-probe scheme. Both kinds of applications provide unique opportunities to develop new time-resolved spectroscopies of transient excited molecular states. In this talk, we shall present briefly recent advances in the field and we shall address several issues of interest with the objective to go beyond the "proof-of-principle" demonstrations that have been reported so far.