Newswise — MELVILLE, N.Y., May 10 – The University of Arizona’s Husain Alqattan is the recipient of the APL Photonics 2022 Future Luminary Award for his work in utilizing pulse shaping and waveform synthesis to control electron motion and open the door for ultrafast electronics that process data at unprecedented speeds.

The winning paper, “Attosecond light field synthesis,” was published in the April 2022 issue of APL Photonics. In it, Alqattan and his team used an attosecond light field synthesizer to compress light field waveforms across two octaves, from near infrared to deep ultraviolet, controlling atomic and electronic motion.

“Our work was to advance the attosecond synthesis of optical laser pulses to a resolution comparable to the native time scale of electron motion in matter,” said Alqattan.

By synthesizing such powerful light field waveforms and establishing control over electron motion, Alqattan and his team have enabled the control of photo-induced current signals in potential dielectric nanocircuits — paving the way for ultrafast photonics that process and encode data at rates higher than 1 petabit per second.

“With the all-optical field sampling technique, the control has become on-demand so that such a synthesis scheme can find its way to the technology realm, too,” said Alqattan.

Alqattan received his doctorate in physics from the University of Arizona. In addition to his work with attosecond light field synthesis and electron motion control, his research also encompasses ultrafast electron diffraction and attosecond electron microscopy.

The APL Photonics Future Luminary Award, which recognizes early-career researchers with the potential to become luminaries in the field of photonics, includes a $3,000 honorarium, the opportunity to join the APL Photonics Early Career Editorial Advisory Board, and an invitation to write an Invited Article in APL Photonics.

“I am delighted to receive the prestigious Future Luminary Award,” said Alqattan. “I hope this helps us to find more venues for the application of our research in the scientific and industrial communities.”

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