Strong-field quantum control in the extreme ultraviolet domain using pulse shaping
Tailored light-matter interactions in the strong coupling regime enable the manipulation and control of quantum systems with up to unit efficiency<sup>1,2</sup>, with applications ranging from quantum information to photochemistry<sup>3-7</sup>. Although strong light-matter interactions are readily induced at the valence electron level using long-wavelength radiation<sup>8</sup>, comparable phenomena have been only recently observed with short wavelengths, accessing highly excited multi-electron and inner-shell electron states<sup>9,10</sup>. However, the quantum control of strong-field processes at short wavelengths has not been possible, so far, because of the lack of pulse-shaping technologies in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) and X-ray domain. Here, exploiting pulse shaping of the seeded free-electron laser (FEL) FERMI, we demonstrate the strong-field quantum control of ultrafast Rabi dynamics in helium atoms with high fidelity. Our approach reveals a strong dressing of the ionization continuum, otherwise elusive to experimental observables. The latter is exploited to achieve control of the total ionization rate, with prospective applications in many XUV and soft X-ray experiments. Leveraging recent advances in intense few-femtosecond to attosecond XUV to soft X-ray light sources, our results open an avenue to the efficient manipulation and selective control of core electron processes and electron correlation phenomena in real time.
Authors
- Lukas Bruder (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9992-9925)
- M. Mudrich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4959-5220)
- M. Wollenhaupt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0839-1494)
- Aaron Ngai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1098-9794)
- Oksana Plekan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4692-7018)
- G. Sansone (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7093-4277)
- Michele Di Fraia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8102-0799)
- Ulf Saalmann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3208-8273)
- Bernd von Issendorff (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4358-4494)
- Marco Zangrando (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8860-3962)
- Tim Laarmann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4289-8536)
- I. Nikolov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4201-5038)
- Cristian Manzoni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4169-8869)
- Nitish Pal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0068-679X)
- Moritz Michelbach (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8157-1504)
- Brendan Wouterlood
- M. Danailov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1888-1331)
- G. Penco (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4900-6513)
- Benedetto Ardini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2188-5867)
- Richard J. Squibb (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6708-8631)
- Daniel Uhl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5988-001X)
- Sarang Dev Ganeshamandiram (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4278-1584)
- Sebastian Hartweg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3053-683X)
- L. Giannessi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7643-9840)
- M. Trovò (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3630-4597)
- Giulio Cerullo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9534-2702)
- Michele Manfredda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1965-8350)
- Fabian Pannek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-8927-7865)
- Kevin C. Prince (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5416-7354)
- Katrin Dulitz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0489-6038)
- Peter Šušnjar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1166-1280)
- F. Stienkemeier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6014-8013)
- R. Feifel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5234-3935)
- Alberto Simoncig (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4471-5927)
- Alexander Demidovich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2355-2257)
- Carlo Callegari (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5491-7752)
- Friedemann Landmesser (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6748-8862)
- E. Allaria (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9570-6361)
- Nicolai Gölz
- Arne Morlok (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9074-8175)
- Yilin Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2314-9927)
- Fabian Richter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5274-5851)
- Alexander Darius Brynes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2343-7566)
Institutions
- Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg (DE)
- Universität Hamburg (DE)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (IT)
- University of Freiburg (DE)
- Universität Innsbruck (AT)
- Aarhus University (DK)
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY (DE)
- Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A. (IT)
- Istituto Officina dei Materiali (IT)
- Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (DE)
- Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie (IT)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (IT)
- Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (DE)
- Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging
- University of Gothenburg (SE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature
- Published
- 2024-12-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08209-y
- Citations
- 22
- Primary Topic
- Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 7.43
Funders
- Baden-Württemberg Stiftung
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
- Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse
- Vetenskapsrådet
- DanScatt