The first 100 femtoseconds: Controlling materials properties with light

by Prof. Hermann Dürr (Uppsala University)

Tuesday 20 Mar 2018, 08:00 → 09:00 Europe/Stockholm

Häggsalen (Angstrom Laboratory)

A key driver of modern information technology is the quest for “smaller and faster” information processing and storage. The ultimate speed limit is the speed of light. The idea to change and control properties of materials with the help of femtosecond laser pulses, the shortest stimuli in contemporary experimental physics, has, therefore, long intrigued researchers. In this talk I will focus on magnetic materials which in nanostructured form are used for data storage, memory and processing. I will use several examples to show how we can address the fundamental challenge of understanding how new equilibrium order emerges out of the chaotic non-equilibrium condition right after the absorption of an intense femtosecond laser pulse. I will also address how this journey of discovery has been possible though experimental advances in developing new accelerator-based x-ray and electron probes of ultrafast charge, spin and lattice motion.