Attosecond electron motion control in dielectric

Abstract

Attosecond science capitalizes on the extreme nonlinearity of strong fields—driven by few-cycle pulses—to attain attosecond temporal resolution and give access to the electron motion dynamics of matter in real time. Here we measured the relative electronic delay response of a dielectric system triggered by a strong field of few-cycle pulses to be of the order of a few hundred attoseconds. Moreover, we exploited the electronic response following the strong driver field to demonstrate all-optical light-field-sampling methodology with attosecond resolution. This methodology provides a direct connection between the driver field and induced ultrafast dynamics in matter. Also, we demonstrate control of electron motion in a dielectric using synthesized light waveforms. This on-demand control of electron motion paves the way for establishing long-anticipated ultrafast switches and quantum electronics. This advancement promises to increase the limiting speed of data processing and information encoding to rates that exceed one petabit per second, opening a new realm of information technology.