Descripción del proyecto
El control temporal del momento angular orbital de la luz podría favorecer aplicaciones de nanomagnetismo ultrarrápido
La interacción de la luz, o fotones, con la materia subyace a aplicaciones que van desde los dispositivos de imagen y la transmisión de datos por fibra óptica hasta los ordenadores cuánticos. La luz helicoidal (luz que exhibe un momento angular orbital) interactúa de manera única con la materia, y aprovechar su poder podría abrir la puerta a nuevos experimentos y aplicaciones derivados de la producción de movimiento mecánico a escala nanométrica con fotones. Recientemente, unos científicos demostraron la capacidad de modificar temporalmente el momento angular orbital con un pulso de luz creado con armónicos de alta frecuencia. Gracias al proyecto ATTOSTRUCTURA, financiado con fondos europeos, estos científicos están desarrollando los fundamentos teóricos y experimentales del magnetismo ultrarrápido mediante el empleo de rayos X ultracortos con momento angular. Este podría ser un camino para lograr, por primera vez, la grabación magnética de alta velocidad.
Objetivo
Light is one of today’s most powerful tools for exploriLight is one of today’s most powerful tools for exploring nature at the frontier of the human knowledge. The rapid development of laser technology allow us today to generate ultrashort pulses of coherent structured light: light fields with custom spatial and temporal properties, such as intensity, phase and angular momentum. The later one represents one of the most interesting light properties nowadays, as topological light beams carrying angular momentum interact with matter differently, introducing mechanical motion to micro and nano-structures, and affecting fundamental excitation rules. High-order harmonic generation (HHG) stands as a unique mechanism to provide coherent flashes of light with outstanding properties: its radiation spectrum expands from the vacuum ultraviolet to the soft x-rays; it can be synthesized in pulses as short as several attoseconds (10^-18 seconds): and it can be structured in its angular momentum properties. This proposal represents a timely opportunity to explore the ground-breaking opportunities offered by attosecond structured x-ray sources. It conveys computing light-matter interaction in extreme conditions, which requires an extraordinary effort in the elaboration of new theoretical tools to design, propose and guide future experiments at the frontier of ultrafast science. We shall pioneer the new scenario of angular momenta in structured ultrashort x-rays –the most complex coherent pulses to date–. It is not difficult to envision a new era in ultrafast nanotechnology that makes use of these x-ray sources. In particular we shall pioneer their application to nanoscience and ultrafast magnetism. We aim to establish the grounding principles of attomagnetism, taking advantage of the unique opportunity offered by structured light pulses to induce pure attosecond magnetic fields, which could set the precedents of high-rate magnetic recording through ultrafast magnetization reversal.
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ERC-STG - Starting GrantInstitución de acogida
37008 Salamanca
España