26 May 2023
Ultrafast laser physicists from the attoworld team at LMU and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics have gained new insights into the dynamics of electrons in solids immediately after photoinjection.
A laser pulse hits an electron in a solid. If it receives enough energy from the light wave, it can then move freely through a solid. This phenomenon, which scientists have been exploring since the beginnings of quantum mechanics, is called photoinjection. There are still open questions about how the relevant processes unfold in time. Laser physicists of the attoworld team of LMU and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics have now made a direct observation of how the optical properties of silicon and silicon dioxide evolve during the first few femtoseconds (millionths of a billionth of a second) after photoinjection with a strong laser pulse.