[Post-doc] Ultrashort tunable deep UV generation for time-resolved molecular dynamics

     A one year post-doc position is open in the Lasers group at Laboratoire Charles Fabry. The postdoc will contribute to the SHOTIME ANR project, aimed at developing bright sources of tunable sub-10 fs VUV-DUV pulses at high repetition rates (>100 kHz) with unprecedented average power and polarization control, and to use them to unravel ultrafast dynamics in chiral molecules. The experiments will be performed in the framework of a joint laboratory between LCF and Amplitude, a world leader company for ultrafast laser systems, and in close collaboration with the laser scientists and physicists at CELIA (Bordeaux, France).

     In the past two decades, extensive research efforts have led to the optimization of attosecond eXtreme UltraViolet sources (XUV), which now routinely deliver pulses down to a few 100 as. These sources constitute an ideal probe of molecular photodynamics, and hold the promise of revealing the electro-nuclear couplings which play a major role in photoreactivity on typical timescales of a few fs. However, to reach that goal a key additional element remains to be developed: sufficiently short tunable and bright pump pulses in the Deep and Vacuum Ultraviolet range (V/DUV). Starting from a compressed Yb:fiber laser, the goal of the project is to produce and characterize tunable ultrashort (sub-10 fs) V/DUV (120-350 nm) pulses resulting from soliton fission dynamics in a gas-filled capillary [1] and to use them to unravel ultrafast processes in chiral molecules.

    The post-doc will have the opportunity to contribute to the following topics:
- Dispersive wave (DW) generation in gas-filled capillaries with few-cycle high repetition rate ytterbium-based laser sources [2,3].
- Investigating the possibility to generate ultrashort V/DUV pulses with circular polarization and orbital angular momentum.
- Interface with the teams of laser scientists and physicists in CELIA to implement ultrafast dynamics experiments with chiral molecules [4,5].

     We are looking for a highly-motivated post-doc student who will be in charge of designing and conducting experiments on the V/DUV dispersive wave generation and characterization. Experiments will be lead in connection with simulations for an optimal design to provide high conversion efficiency, wide V/DUV tunability, and ultrashort pulses.

[1] J. C. Travers et al., Nat. Phot. 13, 547 (2019)
[2] L. Lavenu et al., Opt. Lett. 43, 2252 (2018)
[3] L. Lavenu et al., Opt. Express 27, 1958 (2019)
[4] A. Comby et al., J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 7, 4514 (2016)
[5] S. Beaulieu et al., Nat. Phys. 14, 484 (2018)