Project description
Developing nano-optics for ultra-fast microscopes
Using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light for microscopy offers hope for imaging with high spatiotemporal resolution and excellent material contrast. However, it is held back by the complicated handling of EUV radiation. Funded by the European Innovation Council, the EUVORAM project aims to demonstrate that meta-optical devices are feasible within the EUV domain by implementing a cutting-edge design technique. It will also demonstrate that meta-optical devices can address the current insufficient supply of transmissive EUV optics. Ultimately, EUVORAM will construct a microscope that merges attosecond time and nanometre spatial resolution to follow light-matter interaction in nanodevices.
Objective
Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light sources have matured, both in brightness, as well as in producing ever shorter attosecond light pulses. Contrary, transmissive EUV optics remain sparse due to material absorption. Thus, EUV microscopy today focuses mainly on lensless techniques or secondary observables such as photoelectrons. EUVORAM (Extreme-Ultraviolet Meta-Optics for Attosecond Microscopy) will experimentally demonstrate that meta-optical devices are realizable in the EUV using a novel design approach and that they can solve the current lack of transmissive EUV optics. By emulating the spatial phase profiles of aspheric lenses, we will fabricate focusing meta-optics yielding near-diffraction limited microfoci in the EUV. In combination with contemporary attosecond pulse sources based on laser-driven high-harmonic generation, these meta-lenses will enable high-numerical-aperture EUV focusing that maintains attosecond pulse durations. EUVORAM will exploit this capacity to build a light microscope that unifies attosecond time and nanometer spatial resolution. After its demonstration, we will apply this microscope to isolate the ultrafast hot electron dynamics and sub-nanometer charge transfers in individual plasmonic core@shell nanoparticles using spatially resolved attosecond transient absorption spectroscopy.
EUVORAM will be one of the first projects connecting attosecond science and dielectric meta-surfaces. The planned EUV meta-optics and their novel design will undercut the current short-wavelength limit of meta-surface optics by a factor of four and thus directly redefine the state-of-the-art. The project will push lens-based microscopy to unprecedented time resolutions and at the same time allow hyperspectral attosecond imaging. The latter will free attosecond experiments from observing ensemble averages and provide spatially resolved insight in the light-matter-interaction of photonic nanodevices.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2022-STG
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8010 Graz
Austria
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