Speaker : Rupert Huber (Department of Physics and Regensburg Center for Ultrafast Nanoscopy (RUN)
University of Regensburg)

Abstract: The carrier wave of light can drive electrons through solids on time scales faster than a cycle of light. This ‘lightwave electronics’ concept opens a fascinating coherent quantum world full of promise for future quantum technologies. We will discuss prominent examples of lightwave-driven dynamics in solid-state quantum materials, ranging from Bloch oscillations via topologically non-trivial electron trajectories to optical band-structure engineering and attoclocking of Bloch electrons. We also take slow-motion movies of single molecules and atomic defects and observe the quantum flow of electrons with the first all-optical subcycle microscope reaching atomic resolution. Our results offer a radically new way of watching and controlling elementary dynamics in nature or steer chemical reactions, on their intrinsic spatio-temporal scales.