Quantum Optics of High Harmonic Generation: From Atoms to Solids and Waveguides

Quantum Optics of High Harmonic Generation: From Atoms to Solids and Waveguides

Prof. Dr. Mikhail Ivanov
Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics, Max‐Born Str. 2A, D‐12489 Berlin, Germany

For more than three decades, harmonic generation has been the cornerstone of attosecond
technology, with the generated harmonic light always treated classically. How accurate is this
assumption? Can quantum matter dynamics underlying this process, triggered and controlled by
the classical incident light, be mapped onto the quantum properties of the generated harmonic
light? The answer to this question appears to be “yes.”

I will present our latest results on controlled generation of quantum light in resonant atomic
gases, in quantum systems coupled to structured photonic continua, such as atoms inside the
waveguide, and in molecules. Our results suggest that the dream of generating multiple
harmonics of the incident laser light with nontrivial and controlled quantum properties is
completely realistic.

Speaker Bio

Graduated from Moscow State University in 1987, defended PhD at the General Physics Institute
in 1989, moved to the National Research Council of Canada as a Research Associate in 1992,
where eventually became Principal Research Officer and Head of Theory at the Steacie Institute
for Molecular Sciences of the NRC Canada. Accepted Attosecond Char Professorship at Imperial
College London in 2008, and then moved to the Max Born Institute in Berlin, Germany, where I
currently head Department of Theory, and have Professorship at the Berlin Humboldt University.
Recipient of the Rutherford medal‐physics of the Royal Society of Canada, Bessel prize of the
Humboldt Foundation, member of the Academia Europea. Hold guest professorship at the
Technion. Research interests include all aspects of light‐matter interaction, with fundamental
contributions to attosecond science and technology.