9:00 to 9:05
Welcome and Introduction
Pavel Bakule, ELI Beamlines (Czech Republic)
Saša Bajt, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (Germany)
Optics + Optoelectronics Symposium Chairs

9:05 to 9:50
Laser-plasma interaction studies for advanced direct-drive ignition


Emma Hume
ILIL, National Institute of Optics-CNR (Italy)

Dr. Emma Hume is a researcher at the Intense Laser Irradiation Lab. (ILIL), CNR-National Institute of Optics, with a focus on studies of laser-plasma interactions relevant to the shock ignition variant of inertial confinement fusion. This chiefly involves experimental studies of the growth of parametric instabilities (SRS, SBS, TPD) under novel laser conditions.

Emma holds a PhD in Plasma Science and Fusion Energy, understanding fast electron transport in ultra-intense laser interactions with nanowire targets.


9:55 to 10:40
Advancements in attosecond technology and applications


Francesca Calegari
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY (Germany)

The Nobel Prize in Physics awarded in 2023 underscored the transformative potential of attosecond light sources, which now grant us unprecedented insights into the electron time scale within matter. This advancement has paved the way for the emergence of attochemistry1, a novel field aiming at manipulating chemical reactivity through the precise driving of electronic motion.

In this presentation, I will first give an overview of our latest developments towards compact fewfemtosecond ultraviolet sources and VUV/soft-x ray attosecond sources. Additionally, I will highlight a variety of applications ranging from nanoplasmonic field sampling to the real-time tracking of ultrafast charge migration in photoexcited molecules2 with significant steps toward achieving charge-directed reactivity3— the ultimate objective of attochemistry.

References
1. F. Calegari, F. Martin, Commun Chem 6, 184 (2023)
2. F. Calegari et al, Science 346, 336 (2014)
3. V. Wanie et int., and F. Calegari, Nature 630, 109–115 (2024)

Francesca Calegari leads the Attosecond Science division at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science at DESY. She is also a full professor of physics at Universität Hamburg. Amongst other distinctions, she received the ICO prize and the Ernst Abbe medal from the International Commission of Optics and she is a Fellow of the Optical Society (Optica).

The main focus of her research is to track and ideally control in real time the electron dynamics occurring in systems with increasing complexity from simple molecules to molecules of biological interest and nanostructured materials. To this purpose, her group develops state-of-the-art table-top light sources providing extreme time resolution and spanning from the infrared wavelengths to the soft-x ray spectral range. She exploits attosecond technology to understand the role of electron dynamics in the photochemistry of biochemically relevant molecules including chiral molecules. Her research aims at the optimization of those process for efficient artificial light harvesting.