
Office: JILA A703
Research Interests:
Ultrafast laser technology, ultrafast dynamics in Molecular and materials systems, and development of tabletop coherent x-ray sources.
My primary interest is in developing-- and making use of-- new tabletop "x-ray laser" light sources. 20 years ago, the process of "high order harmonic generation" (HHG) was discovered, where an intense short pulse laser focused into a gas at high intensity was shown to produce light at very high-order harmonics of the driving laser . By implementing this technique using new laser technologies we developed, it became possible to drive this process to an extreme, generating x-ray light that still retains the coherence of the driving laser. However, to implement this tehcnique in a useful way requires an understanding of nonlinear optics in a very different regime than has been studied in the past, necessitating a new way of thinking about phase matching of nonlienar optical processes. During the past decade, we have developed a variety of techniques that allow us to phase-match and quasi-phase match the HHG process. The result is a useful tabletop coherent x-ray source that has applications in in wide variety of scinetific investigations, as well as for technological applications such as nanoscale imaging. The very short-pulse (femtosecond-to-attosecond) nature of these sources makes them useful for studies of ultrafast dynamics, and we have used this source for studies of x-ray induced molecular dissociation, for studies of heat transport on the nanoscale, and for studies of magnetism dynamics (among other things).
Selected Publications:
- M. E. Siemens, Q. Li, R. Yang, K. A. Nelson, E. H. Anderson, M. M. Murnane, and H. C. Kapteyn, "Quasi-ballistic thermal transport from nanoscale interfaces observed using ultrafast coherent soft X-ray beams," Nat Mater advance online publication, 10.1038/nmat2568 (2009).
- T. Popmintchev, M. C. Chen, A. Bahabad, M. Gerrity, P. Sidorenko, O. Cohen, I. P. Christov, M. M. Murnane, and H. C. Kapteyn, "Phase matching of high harmonic generation in the soft and hard X-ray regions of the spectrum," Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America 106(26), 10516-10521 (2009).
- A. S. Sandhu, E. Gagnon, R. Santra, V. Sharma, W. Li, P. Ho, P. Ranitovic, C. L. Cocke, M. M. Murnane, and H. C. Kapteyn, "Observing the Creation of Electronic Feshbach Resonances in Soft X-ray-Induced O-2 Dissociation," Science 322(5904), 1081-1085 (2008).
- R. L. Sandberg, C. Y. Song, P. W. Wachulak, D. A. Raymondson, A. Paul, B. Amirbekian, E. Lee, A. E. Sakdinawat, C. La-O-Vorakiat, M. C. Marconi, C. S. Menoni, M. M. Murnane, J. J. Rocca, H. C. Kapteyn, and J. W. Miao, "High numerical aperture tabletop soft x-ray diffraction microscopy with 70-nm resolution," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105(1), 24-27 (2008).
- W. Li, X. B. Zhou, R. Lock, S. Patchkovskii, A. Stolow, H. C. Kapteyn, and M. M. Murnane, "Time-Resolved Dynamics in N2O4 Probed Using High Harmonic Generation," Science 322(5905), 1207-1211 (2008).
- X. H. Zhang, A. L. Lytle, T. Popmintchev, X. B. Zhou, H. C. Kapteyn, M. M. Murnane, and O. Cohen, "Quasi-phase-matching and quantum-path control of high-harmonic generation using counterpropagating light," Nature Physics 3(4), 270-275 (2007).
- H. Kapteyn, O. Cohen, I. Christov, and M. Murnane, "Harnessing attosecond science in the quest for coherent X-rays," Science 317(5839), 775-778 (2007).
- E. Gagnon, P. Ranitovic, A. Paul, C. L. Cocke, M. M. Murnane, H. C. Kapteyn, and A. S. Sandhu, "Soft x-ray driven femtosecond molecular dynamics," Science 317(5843), 1374-1378 (2007).
- L. Miaja-Avila, C. Lei, M. Aeschlimann, J. L. Gland, M. M. Murnane, H. C. Kapteyn, and G. Saathoff, "Laser-assisted photoelectric effect from surfaces," Physical Review Letters 97(11), 113604 (2006).
- H. C. Kapteyn, M. M. Murnane, and I. P. Christov, "Extreme Nonlinear Optics: Coherent X Rays from Lasers," Physics Today 58(3), 9-44 (2005).
- A. Paul, R. A. Bartels, R. Tobey, H. Green, S. Weiman, I. P. Christov, M. M. Murnane, H. C. Kapteyn, and S. Backus, "Quasi-phase-matched generation of coherent extreme-ultraviolet light," Nature 421(6918), 51-54 (2003).
- R. A. Bartels, A. Paul, H. Green, H. C. Kapteyn, M. M. Murnane, S. Backus, I. P. Christov, Y. W. Liu, D. Attwood, and C. Jacobsen, "Generation of spatially coherent light at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths," Science 297(5580), 376-378 (2002).
- R. K. Shelton, L. S. Ma, H. C. Kapteyn, M. M. Murnane, J. L. Hall, and J. Ye, "Phase-coherent optical pulse synthesis from separate femtosecond lasers," Science 293(5533), 1286-1289 (2001).
- S. Backus, R. Bartels, S. Thompson, R. Dollinger, H. C. Kapteyn, and M. M. Murnane, "High-efficiency, single-stage 7-kHz high-average-power ultrafast laser system," Optics Letters 26(7), 465-467 (2001).
- R. Bartels, S. Backus, E. Zeek, L. Misoguti, G. Vdovin, I. P. Christov, M. M. Murnane, and H. C. Kapteyn, "Shaped-pulse optimization of coherent emission of high-harmonic soft X-rays," Nature 406(6792), 164-166 (2000).
- A. Rundquist, C. G. Durfee III, S. Backus, C. Herne, Z. Chang, M. M. Murnane, and H. C. Kapteyn, "Phase-matched Generation of Coherent Soft X-rays," Science 280(5368), 1412-1415 (1998).
- Z. H. Chang, A. Rundquist, H. W. Wang, M. M. Murnane, and H. C. Kapteyn, "Generation of coherent soft x rays at 2.7 nm using high harmonics (vol 79, pg 2967, 1997)," Physical Review Letters 80(8), 1795-1795 (1998).
- I. P. Christov, M. M. Murnane, and H. C. Kapteyn, "High-harmonic generation of attosecond pulses in the ''single- cycle'' regime," Physical Review Letters 78(7), 1251-1254 (1997).
- J. Zhou, J. Peatross, M. M. Murnane, H. C. Kapteyn, and I. P. Christov, "Enhanced High Harmonic Generation using 25 Femtosecond Laser Pulses," Physical Review Letters 76(5), 752-755 (1996).
- J. P. Zhou, C. P. Huang, M. M. Murnane, and H. C. Kapteyn, "Amplification of 26 fs, 2 TW pulses near the gain-narrowing limit in Ti:sapphire," Optics Letters 20(1), 64 (1995).
- S. Backus, J. Peatross, C. P. Huang, H. C. Kapteyn, and M. M. Murnane, "Ti:Sapphire Amplifier Producing Millijoule-Level, 21 fs Pulses at 1 kHz," Optics Letters 20(19), 2000 (1995).
- J. P. Zhou, G. Taft, C. P. Huang, M. M. Murnane, H. C. Kapteyn, and I. P. Christov, "Pulse Evolution in a Broad-Bandwidth Ti-Sapphire Laser," Optics Letters 19(15), 1149-1151 (1994).
- M. T. Asaki, C. P. Huang, D. Garvey, J. Zhou, H. C. Kapteyn, and M. M. Murnane, "Generation of 11-fs pulses from a modelocked Ti:sapphire laser," Optics Letters 18, 977 (1993).
- A. Sullivan, H. Hamster, H. C. Kapteyn, S. Gordon, W. White, H. Nathel, R. J. Blair, and R. W. Falcone, "Multi-Terawatt 100 Femtosecond Laser," Optics Letters 16(18), 1406-1408 (1991).
- M. M. Murnane, H. C. Kapteyn, M. D. Rosen, and R. W. Falcone, "Ultrafast X-Ray Pulses from Laser-Produced Plasmas," Science 251(4993), 531-536 (1991).