News

Ursula Keller wins “Swiss Nobel” Marcel Benoist Prize- for pioneering work in ultrafast lasers
MUST2022 Conference- a great success!
New scientific highlights- by MUST PIs Wörner, Chergui, and Richardson
FELs of Europe prize for Jeremy Rouxel- “Development or innovative use of advanced instrumentation in the field of FELs”
Ruth Signorell wins Doron prizefor pioneering contributions to the field of fundamental aerosol science
New FAST-Fellow Uwe Thumm at ETH- lectures on Topics in Femto- and Attosecond Science
International Day of Women and Girls in Science- SSPh asked female scientists about their experiences
New scientific highlight- by MUST PIs Milne, Standfuss and Schertler
EU XFEL Young Scientist Award for Camila Bacellar,beamline scientist and group leader of the Alvra endstation at SwissFEL
Prizes for Giulia Mancini and Rebeca Gomez CastilloICO/IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Optics & Ernst Haber 2021
Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to RESOLV Member Benjamin List- for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis
NCCR MUST at Scientifica 2021- Lightning, organic solar cells, and virtual molecules

Ursula Keller

January 2013

Prof. Ursula Keller was awarded a 2012 ERC Advanced Grant for the Attoclock project: Clocking fundamental attosecond electron dynamics.

The attoclock is a powerful, new, and unconventional tool to study fundamental attosecond dynamics on an atomic scale. Prof. Ursula Keller established its potential by using the first attoclock to measure the tunneling delay time in laser-induced ionization of helium and argon atoms. Building on these first proof-of-principle measurements, she proposed to amplify and expand this tool concept to explore the following key questions: How fast can light liberate electrons from a single atom, a single molecule, or a solid-state system? Related are more questions: How fast can an electron tunnel through a potential barrier? How fast is a multi-photon absorption process? How fast is single-photon photoemission?

Many of these questions will undoubtedly spark more questions – revealing deeper and more detailed insights on the dynamics of some of the most fundamental and relevant optoelectronic processes. Theory has failed to offer definitive answers, while – in most cases - simulations based on the exact time-dependent Schrödinger equation have not been possible. Instead, approximations and simpler models are used to capture the essential physics. Such semi-classical models potentially will help to understand attosecond energy and charge transport in larger molecular systems. Indeed the attoclock provides a unique tool to explore different semi-classical models, and resolve the question whether electron tunneling through an energetically forbidden region takes a finite time or is. The tunnelling process, charge transfer, and energy transport all play key roles in electronics, energy conversion, chemical and biological reactions, and fundamental processes important for improved information, health, and energy technologies. Prof. Keller believes the attoclock can help refine and resolve key models for many of these important underlying attosecond processes.

<<
NCCR MUST Office : ETHZ IQE/ULP-HPT H3 | Auguste-Piccard-Hof 1 | 8093 Zurich | E-Mail
The National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCR) are a research instrument of the Swiss National Science Foundation