WPC Colloquium: Intense Light Matter Interactions: from Quantum Optics to Topology

by Mikhail Ivanov (Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics)

Wednesday 7 May 2025, 14:00 → 15:30 Europe/Berlin

CFEL, ground floor, SR I-III (DESY Hamburg )

Abstract: 

For more than three decades, harmonic generation has been the cornerstone of attosecond technology, culminating in the Physics Nobel Prize in 2023. The quantum nature of the material response to light has never been in doubt, but the generated light has always been treated classically. Can quantum matter dynamics underlying this process, triggered and controlled by the classical incident light, be mapped onto the quantum properties of the generated harmonic light? It appears that the answer is “yes’’. I will present our latest results on controlled generation of quantum light in resonant atomic gases and in quantum systems coupled to structured photonic continua, such as atoms inside a waveguide. I also hope to show how intense shaped light can be used to induce nontrivial topological properties in two-dimensional solids, and how harmonic generation can be used to sense this topological change.

 

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Venue: DESY Hamburg, CFEL (Building 99) 

Directions: https://www.cfel.de/contact/index_eng.html 

 

Poster_WPC_Colloquium_Mikhail_Ivanov.pdf