Speaker: Beatrix Fehér (Wigner RCP )
Title: Laser-Field-Controlled Ultrafast Currents in Metals
Date: Tuesday 20 January, 10:00
Place: Building 1, Conference room
Abstract:
Strong-field interaction with solid-state matter is a promising cornerstone for future optoelectronics, potentially enabling operations in the PHz frequency domain. When few-cycle laser pulses interact with solid materials just below their damage threshold, a variety of fascinating phenomena emerge, including nonlinear effects, photoemission, high harmonic generation, or the generation of oriented currents. Ultrafast, carrier-envelope phase (CEP)-dependent currents have been observed in a wide range of media, spanning graphene, semiconductors and dielectrics. In this presentation, I report on the detection of light-field-driven currents generated in ultrathin metal layers incorporated into heterostructures [1]. Our measurements support the conjecture that the transfer of current from the medium to the electrodes is non-local and quasi-instantaneous, implying that physical carrier transport is not required. To explain this behavior, the Ramo–Shockley theorem was invoked [1,2]. Additionally, the current generated this way is stable enough to be utilized in an on-chip 500-nm-resolution, 3D CEP scanner [3].
[1] B. Fehér, V. Hanus, W. Li, Z. Pápa, J. Budai, P. Paul, A. Szeghalmi, Z. Wang, M. F. Kling, and P. Dombi, Light field–controlled PHz currents in intrinsic metals, Sci. Adv. 11, eadv5406 (2025).
[2] V. Hanus, B. Fehér, Z. Pápa, J. Budai, P. Paul, A. Szeghalmi, and P. Dombi, Non-Local Transfer of Ultrafast Currents Generated by Laser Pulses, Phys. Rev. Lett., manuscript under review (2025).
[3] V. Hanus, B. Fehér, V. Csajbók, P. Sándor, Z. Pápa, J. Budai, Z. Wang, P. Paul, A. Szeghalmi, and P. Dombi, Carrier-envelope phase on-chip scanner and control of laser beams, Nat. Commun. 14, 5068 (2023).
