A switch for light-wave electronics

A team led by Ferenc Krausz of LMU Munich and the MPI for Quantum Optics, together with theorists from Tsukuba University, has optimized the interaction of light with glass, thus improving the prospects for optically driven electronics. Light waves could in principle be used to drive future transistors. Since the electromagnetic waves of light oscillate approximately one million times in a billionth of a second, i.e. at petahertz (PHz) frequencies, optoelectronic computers could attain switching rates 100,000 times higher than current digital electronic systems. However, to achieve this goal, we will need a better understanding of the sub-atomic electron motion induced by the ultrafast electric field of light. Now a team led by Ferenc Krausz , who holds a Chair in Experimental Physics at LMU and is a Director of the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, in collaboration with theorists from Tsukuba University in Japan, has used a novel combination of experimental and theoretical techniques, which for the first time provides direct access to the dynamics of this process. The new findings are reported in the journal "Nature". Insights into attosecond electron dynamics Electron movements form the basis of electronics, as they facilitate the storage, processing and transfer of information.