Synthesizing ultrafast optical pulses with arbitrary spatiotemporal control

Published

October 26, 2022

Author(s)

Lu Chen, Wenqi Zhu, Pengcheng Huo, Junyeob Song, Henri Lezec, Ting Xu, Amit Agrawal

Abstract

The ability to control the instantaneous state of light – its phase, amplitude, polarization, or wavefront – of high-energy pulses down to the single-photon level is an indispensable and a necessary requirement in photonics. This has, for example, facilitated spatiotemporal probing and coherent control of ultrafast light-matter interactions, and enabled capabilities such as generation of exotic states of light with complexity, or at wavelengths, not accessible with traditional mechanisms. Here, by leveraging multifunctional nanoscale control of light offered by metasurfaces, we present a versatile approach to synthesize complex ultrafast electric-field transients over an ultrawide bandwidth with arbitrary control over its complete spatiotemporal evolution. We expect the multidimensional control of the light-field using only a single-layer optic to transform the landscape of coherent ultrafast light-matter interactions.

Citation

Science Advances

Volume

8

Issue

43

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abq8314

Local Download

Citation

Chen, L. , Zhu, W. , Huo, P. , Song, J. , Lezec, H. , Xu, T. and Agrawal, A. (2022), Synthesizing ultrafast optical pulses with arbitrary spatiotemporal control, Science Advances, [online], https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abq8314, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=933779 (Accessed April 26, 2024)