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Attosecond photoelectron holography with non-classical light

Project ID: 2531ad1570

(You will need this ID for your application)

Research Theme: Physical Sciences

UCL Lead department: Physics and Astronomy

Department Website

Lead Supervisor: Carla Figueira De Morisson Faria

Project Summary:

Professor Carla Faria is seeking a PhD student for a competitive 4-year Doctoral Training Programme (DTP) position at UCL, intending to study ultrafast photoelectron holography with nonclassical light.

Attoseconds (10-18 s) are among the shortest time scales in nature, so that the usual physical mechanisms leading to the loss of coherence may not develop. This may revolutionize quantum technologies. Ongoing discussions include creating massively entangled states and quantum superpositions using entanglement between electrons, and electrons with non-classical light (Cruz-Rodriguez et al, Nature Reviews Physics 6, 691 (2024)).

The project unites attoscience and quantum technologies. Ultrafast photoelectron holography is a powerful tool for tracing attosecond changes in matter using interference patterns from different quantum pathways of an electron to the detector. Thereby, path-integral methods such as the UCL-developed Coulomb-Quantum Orbit Strong-Field Approximation (CQSFA) have a huge predictive power (Faria and Maxwell, Rep. Prog. Phys. 83 (3), 034401(2020)). Nonetheless, the field was considered classical.

In this project, the CQSFA will be generalized to a full quantum electrodynamic setting and used to calculate photoelectron momentum distributions (PMDs) with non-classical light of different statistics. The influence of these fields on the PMDs and electron states on the field will be assessed. Subsequently, the entanglement between the field and the electron for tailored fields will be quantified, with quantum sensing applications in mind.

The student will be supervised by Professor Carla Faria on Attoscience, and Professor Sougato Bose on Quantum Technologies. Interactions with Professor Alessio Serafini (UCL) and leading groups in the UK and abroad are anticipated.

This is a theoretical project. The successful applicant should have an MSc in Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry, or related areas, with at least a 2.1 or equivalent. Pre-knowledge of path integral methods and coding experience are desirable.

For informal inquiries please contact c.faria@ucl.ac.uk (see also www.uclatto.com).