Barry WalkerProfessor

Department of Physics & AstronomyUniversity of Delaware

Physics & Astronomy Colloquium Tuesday, February 24

11:30 amHackman 218

Over the past twenty years, interactions of intense lasers with atoms and molecules have measured the laser electric field in time, generated co-herent attosecond (10^(-18) s) pulsed x-ray light, probed multielectron excitation, and performed molecular tomography. Current laser technol-ogy exceeds the intensity at which these observations were made by ten-thousand times. Up to twenty-six electrons with energies extending from keV to MeV have been ionized by new, 10^(19) W/cm^2, ‘ultra’ intense lasers. We discuss experiments and theory on the interaction of ultrahigh intensities with atoms and molecules. The research contributes to our understanding of ultrastrong field dynamics, excitation, and multi-electron physics as well as the underpinnings for next generation radiation sources and plasma physics in ultrastrong fields.

Laser Physics in the Extreme: Ultrahigh Intensities