Applied Physics/Physics Colloquium: Giulio Vampa - "Quantum-optical Properties of High-Harmonic Generation"

Abstract: The emission of high-order harmonics of intense femtosecond lasers has long been understood as a result of a short-lived and rapidly oscillating “quantum antenna”: the result of the dynamical interference of the wavefunctions of an accelerated electron and that of its correlated hole, setup by an intense laser field during its interaction with matter. Ever since its discovery and understanding in the 1980s-90s, the emitted light has always been considered as a classical electromagnetic field, even though it is typically extremely weak. In the last five years or so, however, the inves