Lecture

Analysis and Control of Electron Dynamics

Graph Chat

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

Description

This lecture covers the analysis and control of electron dynamics on the femto-second time scale in laser fields, discussing the non-perturbative solutions of the full time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE) for both strong and weak lasers. It delves into the density-functional theory, explaining how every observable quantity of a quantum system can be calculated from the system's density alone. The lecture also explores the time-dependent density-functional formalism, the photo-absorption in weak lasers, and the optimal control theory for achieving specific goals with laser pulses. Additionally, it touches upon electronic transport with time-dependent density-functional theory and the theoretical approach of real-time time-dependent density-functional theory with spin-orbit coupling.

Official source

Related concepts (32)

Laser

A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word laser is an anacronym that originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. The first laser was built in 1960 by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories, based on theoretical work by Charles H. Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow. A laser differs from other sources of light in that it emits light that is coherent.

Laser diode

A laser diode (LD, also injection laser diode or ILD, or diode laser) is a semiconductor device similar to a light-emitting diode in which a diode pumped directly with electrical current can create lasing conditions at the diode's junction. Driven by voltage, the doped p–n-transition allows for recombination of an electron with a hole. Due to the drop of the electron from a higher energy level to a lower one, radiation, in the form of an emitted photon is generated. This is spontaneous emission.

Density functional theory

Density-functional theory (DFT) is a computational quantum mechanical modelling method used in physics, chemistry and materials science to investigate the electronic structure (or nuclear structure) (principally the ground state) of many-body systems, in particular atoms, molecules, and the condensed phases. Using this theory, the properties of a many-electron system can be determined by using functionals, i.e. functions of another function. In the case of DFT, these are functionals of the spatially dependent electron density.

Quantum computing

A quantum computer is a computer that exploits quantum mechanical phenomena. At small scales, physical matter exhibits properties of both particles and waves, and quantum computing leverages this behavior, specifically quantum superposition and entanglement, using specialized hardware that supports the preparation and manipulation of quantum states. Classical physics cannot explain the operation of these quantum devices, and a scalable quantum computer could perform some calculations exponentially faster than any modern "classical" computer.

Laser science

Laser science or laser physics is a branch of optics that describes the theory and practice of lasers. Laser science is principally concerned with quantum electronics, laser construction, optical cavity design, the physics of producing a population inversion in laser media, and the temporal evolution of the light field in the laser. It is also concerned with the physics of laser beam propagation, particularly the physics of Gaussian beams, with laser applications, and with associated fields such as nonlinear optics and quantum optics.

Related lectures (64)

Laser Theory: Fundamentals and Applications

Explores laser fundamentals, historical development, and attenuation mechanisms.

Quantum Probability Basics

Covers the fundamentals of quantum probability and binary linear systems.

Gas lasers: theory and modern applications

Explores gas lasers theory, gain saturation, and laser applications in modern technologies.

Quantum Entanglement

Explores quantum entanglement, Bell inequalities, and self-testing in quantum systems.

History of lasers: Lorentz model for atom/light interaction