Ursula Keller wins “Swiss Nobel” Marcel Benoist Prize
Farewell: the NCCR MUST ended 
MUST2022 Conference
New scientific highlights
FELs of Europe prize for Jeremy Rouxel
Ruth Signorell wins Doron prize
New FAST-Fellow Uwe Thumm at ETH
International Day of Women and Girls in Science
New scientific highlight
EU XFEL Young Scientist Award for Camila Bacellar,
Prizes for Giulia Mancini and Rebeca Gomez Castillo
Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to RESOLV Member Benjamin List
Hans Jakob Wörner invited to give the „New Horizons Solvay Lectures” 
Unusual keynote talk at an international scientific conference
NCCR MUST at Scientifica 2021Four new scientific highlights
See our Highlights page for details
Ionization in intense laser fields beyond the dipole approximation: review
During the ionization process with strong laser fields the photoelectrons can reach large enough velocities such that the magnetic field component of the laser field becomes significant and the dipole approximation breaks down. This paper is an invited review paper about ionization beyond the dipole approximation which has become a hot topic in the attosecond field.
Maurer, J., and Keller, U. (2021). Ionization in intense laser fields beyond the electric dipole approximation: concepts, methods, achievements and future directions. J. Phys. B: Atom. Mol. Opt. Phys. 54, 094001 (10.1088/1361-6455/abf731)
Measuring tunneling dynamics through barriers
The tunnelling of a microparticle through a barrier is one of the most fundamental and ubiquitous quantum processes. In strong-field ionization, the oscillating electric field of laser pulses creates a time-dependent potential barrier in atoms or molecules allowing the bound electron to tunnel. Researchers in the group of Hans Jakob Wörner present a robust measurement of tunnelling dynamics including the electron sub-barrier phase and amplitude. They combine the attoclock technique with two-colour phase-of-phase (POP) spectroscopy to accurately calibrate the angular streaking relation and to probe the non-stationary tunnelling dynamics by manipulating a rapidly changing potential barrier.
Han, M., P. Ge, J. Wang, Z. Guo, Y. Fang, X. Ma, X. Yu, Y. Deng, H. J. Wörner, Q. Gong and Y. Liu (2021). "Complete characterization of sub-Coulomb-barrier tunnelling with phase-of-phase attoclock." Nature Photon. (10.1038/s41566-021-00842-7)
Uniquely sharp X-ray view at SwissFEL
Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, EPFL, MIT, Fermi FEL and other partners, including many current and former NCCR MUST researchers and two fellows of the FP-RESOMUS program have succeeded for the first time in looking inside materials using the method of transient grating spectroscopy with ultrafast X-rays at SwissFEL. The experiment at PSI is a milestone in observing processes in the world of atoms. The researchers are publishing their research results in the journal Nature Photonics.
Rouxel, J.R., Fainozzi, D., Mankowsky, R., Rösner, B., Seniutinas, G., Mincigrucci, R., Catalini, S., Foglia, L., Cucini, R., Döring, F., Kubec, A., Koch, F., Bencivenga, F., Haddad, A.A., Gessini, A., Maznev, A.A., Cirelli, C., Gerber, S., Pedrini, B., Mancini, G.F., Razzoli, E., Burian, M., Ueda, H., Pamfilidis, G., Ferrari, E., Deng, Y., Mozzanica, A., Johnson, P.J.M., Ozerov, D., Izzo, M.G., Bottari, C., Arrell, C., Divall, E.J., Zerdane, S., Sander, M., Knopp, G., Beaud, P., Lemke, H.T., Milne, C.J., David, C., Torre, R., Chergui, M., Nelson, K.A., Masciovecchio, C., Staub, U., Patthey, L., and Svetina, C. (2021). Hard X-ray transient grating spectroscopy on bismuth germanate. Nature Photon. (10.1038/s41566-021-00797-9)
The shape of light changes our vision
Vision is a complex process that has been successfully deciphered by many disciplines –physics, biochemistry, physiology, neurology, etc.–: The retina captures light, the optic nerve transmits electrical impulses to the brain, which ultimately generates the perception of an image. Although this process takes some time, recent studies have shown that the first stage of vision, the perception of light itself, is extremely fast.
Gaulier, G., Dietschi, Q., Bhattacharyya, S., Schmidt, C., Montagnese, M., Chauvet, A., Hermelin, S., Chiodini, F., Bonacina, L., Herrera, P.L., Röthlisberger, U., Rodriguez, I., and Wolf, J.-P. (2021). Ultrafast pulse shaping modulates perceived visual brightness in living animals. Sci Adv 7, eabe1911. ()(10.1126/sciadv.abe1911)
Ionization in intense laser fields beyond the dipole approximation: review
During the ionization process with strong laser fields the photoelectrons can reach large enough velocities such that the magnetic field component of the laser field becomes significant and the dipole approximation breaks down. This paper is an invited review paper about ionization beyond the dipole approximation which has become a hot topic in the attosecond field.
Maurer, J., and Keller, U. (2021). Ionization in intense laser fields beyond the electric dipole approximation: concepts, methods, achievements and future directions. J. Phys. B: Atom. Mol. Opt. Phys. 54, 094001 (10.1088/1361-6455/abf731)
Measuring tunneling dynamics through barriers
The tunnelling of a microparticle through a barrier is one of the most fundamental and ubiquitous quantum processes. In strong-field ionization, the oscillating electric field of laser pulses creates a time-dependent potential barrier in atoms or molecules allowing the bound electron to tunnel. Researchers in the group of Hans Jakob Wörner present a robust measurement of tunnelling dynamics including the electron sub-barrier phase and amplitude. They combine the attoclock technique with two-colour phase-of-phase (POP) spectroscopy to accurately calibrate the angular streaking relation and to probe the non-stationary tunnelling dynamics by manipulating a rapidly changing potential barrier.
Han, M., P. Ge, J. Wang, Z. Guo, Y. Fang, X. Ma, X. Yu, Y. Deng, H. J. Wörner, Q. Gong and Y. Liu (2021). "Complete characterization of sub-Coulomb-barrier tunnelling with phase-of-phase attoclock." Nature Photon. (10.1038/s41566-021-00842-7)
Uniquely sharp X-ray view at SwissFEL
Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, EPFL, MIT, Fermi FEL and other partners, including many current and former NCCR MUST researchers and two fellows of the FP-RESOMUS program have succeeded for the first time in looking inside materials using the method of transient grating spectroscopy with ultrafast X-rays at SwissFEL. The experiment at PSI is a milestone in observing processes in the world of atoms. The researchers are publishing their research results in the journal Nature Photonics.
Rouxel, J.R., Fainozzi, D., Mankowsky, R., Rösner, B., Seniutinas, G., Mincigrucci, R., Catalini, S., Foglia, L., Cucini, R., Döring, F., Kubec, A., Koch, F., Bencivenga, F., Haddad, A.A., Gessini, A., Maznev, A.A., Cirelli, C., Gerber, S., Pedrini, B., Mancini, G.F., Razzoli, E., Burian, M., Ueda, H., Pamfilidis, G., Ferrari, E., Deng, Y., Mozzanica, A., Johnson, P.J.M., Ozerov, D., Izzo, M.G., Bottari, C., Arrell, C., Divall, E.J., Zerdane, S., Sander, M., Knopp, G., Beaud, P., Lemke, H.T., Milne, C.J., David, C., Torre, R., Chergui, M., Nelson, K.A., Masciovecchio, C., Staub, U., Patthey, L., and Svetina, C. (2021). Hard X-ray transient grating spectroscopy on bismuth germanate. Nature Photon. (10.1038/s41566-021-00797-9)
The shape of light changes our vision
Vision is a complex process that has been successfully deciphered by many disciplines –physics, biochemistry, physiology, neurology, etc.–: The retina captures light, the optic nerve transmits electrical impulses to the brain, which ultimately generates the perception of an image. Although this process takes some time, recent studies have shown that the first stage of vision, the perception of light itself, is extremely fast.
Gaulier, G., Dietschi, Q., Bhattacharyya, S., Schmidt, C., Montagnese, M., Chauvet, A., Hermelin, S., Chiodini, F., Bonacina, L., Herrera, P.L., Röthlisberger, U., Rodriguez, I., and Wolf, J.-P. (2021). Ultrafast pulse shaping modulates perceived visual brightness in living animals. Sci Adv 7, eabe1911. ()(10.1126/sciadv.abe1911)
