Observing the First Femtoseconds of Photoinjection with Laser Physics

Laser physicists have directly observed the first few femtoseconds after photoinjection with a strong laser pulse, revealing how the optical properties of silicon and silicon dioxide evolve during this time. The attoworld team of LMU and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics used a novel technique for optical-field-resolved pump-probe measurements to observe how charge carriers interacted with a weak test pulse during the first femtoseconds after their appearance. The findings could eventually help achieve future signal processing in the petahertz range, making so-called light wave electronics possible.