Attosecond Physics – The Nobel Prize For Discovery of the Shortest Events in Nature

Seminar at the Faculty of Physics: "Attosecond Physics – The Nobel Prize For Discovery of the Shortest Events in Nature"

Dr. Predrag Ranitović, Principal Research Fellow at Faculty of Physics, University of Belgrade, will give a talk entitled "Attosecond Physics – Nobel Prize For Discovery of the Shortest Events in Nature", on Wednesday, November 22, 2023, at the Faculty of Physics. 

 Abstract:

With the beginning of the 21st century, a new branch of physics was born, the main topic of which is the understanding of electron dynamics in small atoms and molecules. The rapid development of ultrafast laser technology, with short/femtosecond pulses (10-15 seconds), enabled the application of attosecond (10-18 seconds) techniques in atomic and molecular physics and their expansion to other scientific fields such as condensed matter physics and nano-materials physics, physical chemistry and biology. One of the main topics of science in the 20th century was the use of X-rays to understand the structure of matter. In the 21st century, attosecond science gives us the ability to understand the dynamic processes of matter governed by the dynamics of electrons.

This year, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to the pioneers of experimental physics for their contribution to the development of attosecond physics. In the original: "Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L'Hullier got the Physics Nobel Prize Award for the development of experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter." The Nobel Prize in Physics 2023

In my seminar, as the first topic, I will present the basic ideas of ultrafast laser physics and attosecond physics, with a focus on the historical experiments of Nobel Prize winners. In the second part of the lecture, I will present some of the recent achievements of attosecond physics, such as the coherent control of electron dynamics in the extreme ultraviolet domain. This was precisely the main topic of my PhD in 2008, which was inspired by the results published in the group of Anne L'Hullier and who was on the committee of my PhD defense at the University of Stockholm. Finally, I will give several examples of how fundamental science affects the development of technology and its application to the development of society.