Abstract

Born around the turn of the new millennium, attosecond metrology has permitted the observation of atomic-scale electron dynamics in real time. Until recently, this capability has relied on attosecond extreme ultraviolet pulses, generated and measured in complex vacuum systems. Attosecond metrology 2.0 is now about to change this state of matters profoundly. Sub-femtosecond current injection into wide-gap materials can directly probe ultrafast electron phenomena in condensed matter systems and also be used for sampling the electric field of light up to ultraviolet frequencies. Petahertz field sampling draws on a robust solid-state circuitry and routine few-cycle laser technology, opening the door for complete characterization of classical fields all the way from the far infrared to the vacuum ultraviolet. These fields, with accurately measured temporal evolution, serve as a unique probe for the dynamic (polarization) response of matter. Field-resolved spectroscopy will access (valence) electronic as well as nuclear motions in all forms of matter and constitutes a generalization of pump-probe approaches. Its implementation with a solid-state instrumentation opens the door for real-world applications, such as early cancer detection by measuring miniscule changes of the molecular composition of blood (liquid biopsy) via field-resolved vibrational molecular fingerprinting.

© 2017 IEEE