A University of California, Berkeley, researcher whose team generated a 67-attosecond pulse of extreme UV laser light last summer has received a $6.9 million grant from DARPA to make the pulse 1000 times stronger. Physics professor Zenghu Chang, from the school’s College of Optics and Photonics, is leading a team from Berkeley and the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada, to help DARPA better understand the interaction of electrons in solids and, ultimately, to create ultrafast sensors and detectors. The pulse already provides a new tool to view quantum mechanics in action, and the agency hopes to make it even stronger with its Program in Ultrafast Laser Science and Engineering (PULSE). Uc Berkeley physics professor Zenghu Chang, whose team generated a 67-attosecond pulse of extreme UV laser light last summer, has received a $6.9 million grant from DARPA to make the pulse 1000 times stronger. Courtesy UCF. “There have been a lot of new discoveries made in attosecond lasers in the last 12 years,” Chang said. “Now, an opportunity has arrived to do something that has previously only been done in principle.” Attosecond laser pulses can help scientists understand how to harness energy to transport data or build stronger and more conductive materials. However, the intensity of the previous attosecond light was too low for many applications. The new attosecond light source will be strong enough to both excite and probe electron dynamics, considered the greatest ambition of attosecond science. The first stage of the PULSE project will focus on building a femtosecond laser that can produce higher energy pulses to drive the process of attosecond pulse generation. Housed in a 2400-sq-ft space comparable to four standard labs in the University of Central Florida’s (UCF) Physical Science building, the laser’s beam will have to be “folded” multiple times to achieve the power DARPA seeks, Chang said. The new facility will enable the US to become a contender in attosecond laser research infrastructure; European countries have, thus far, dominated the landscape. DARPA, responsible for developing cutting-edge technologies for the military, has increasingly set its sights on the power and potential of ultrafast lasers. A study last year by the National Research Council emphasized the imperative role optics and photonics will play in developing the technologies of the future and strongly recommended that the US pursue becoming a global leader in the field. UCF recently announced the creation of an Institute for the Frontier of Attosecond Science and Technology. Directed by Chang, the institute will allow researchers from UC Berkeley’s Department of Physics and UCF’s College of Optics & Photonics to work together to compete for cutting-edge projects such as the DARPA grant. “Attosecond science is addressing problems that are more and more complex,” Chang said. “By establishing an institute for collaborative research on attosecond science, we create the potential for major breakthroughs in our understanding of the role of ultrafast electron dynamics.” For more information, visit: www.berkeley.edu