Publications

Light: Science & Applications (2026)

We demonstrate a novel concept for measuring time-varying electric field transients of petahertz-scale photons down to a single-photon regime. We observe a clear breakdown of the classical regime consistent with our Monte Carlo model. We reach unprecedented yoctojoule-level (10⁻²⁴ J) sensitivity and a dynamic range exceeding 90 decibels. We utilize this capability to measure intrapulse light coherence - a regime inaccessible to conventional, time-averaged spectroscopy. This opens new avenues for quantum information, cryptography, and quantum light-matter interactions on sub-cycle time scales with attosecond precision.

arXiv (2026)

Visualizing the spatiotemporal evolution of the electric field of light is fundamental to optics, from designing photonic devices to developing next-generation microscopes. However, we lack the experimental tools to directly access the electric field of light in the sample plane of an optical microscope. Here, we introduce an all-optical imaging modality that resolves the electric field of light in the plane of a traditional widefield transmission optical microscope with 100-attosecond temporal and 200-nanometer spatial resolution. With this we demonstrate the delayed buildup of scattering contrast and pulse broadening through and around a thick MoTe2 flake - dynamics inaccessible via standard simulations. We showcase our technique’s versatility by additionally resolving the full in-plane vector electric field lines during photoexcitation as the optical pulse propagates through and around the MoTe2 flake.

2025 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC) (2025)

The past few years have witnessed the development of multiple techniques to measure the full-electric field of ultrashort optical waveforms, enabling the study of ultrafast phenomena on sub-cycle time scales. Among them, generalized heterodyne optical sampling techniques (GHOSTs) provide a convenient all-optical approach that promises scalability to high repetition rates and implementation without the need for pulses with stable carrier envelop phase (CEP).

CLEO 2025 (2025)

We report on recent developments towards multi-petahertz quantum fieldoscopy and demonstrate potential applicability of the concept for studying the spatiotemporal dynamics in nanomaterials.

arXiv (2025)

We demonstrate an electric field-resolved approach for probing ultrafast dynamics of photoinjected charges in solids. Direct access to the electric field of few-cycle pulses enables us to measure a broadband response of a medium with associated plasma frequency. We prepare an ensemble of photoinjected hot charge carriers with energies sufficient to trigger impact ionization and establish a framework to measure its dynamics. Our study reveals the first time-resolved observation of the short-lived ultrafast impact ionization in germanium counteracted by trapping of mobile charges at later times. This approach provides a promising route for studying ultrafast many-body physics in photoexcited solids, with predictions from advanced theoretical models.

CLEO 2025 (2025)

Drude–Lorentz model describes optical properties of solids and is fundamental for the condensed matter physics. We measure the formation of this response in photo-excited silicon and silica to be on the order of several femtoseconds.

Advanced Optical Materials (2024)

The emerging field of lightwave electronics is driving optoelectronic information processing beyond current classical limitations and has the potential to eventually reach petahertz frequencies. One of the major obstacles in reaching not only higher switching frequencies but also higher repetition rates with low-power light sources is the efficiency of related devices. A device is presented based on a multilayered material that shows a 13-fold enhancement in terms of converting light to electric current compared to bulk solids. Furthermore, the device exhibits an almost flat intensity response within its working range. The outstanding properties of engineered multilayered devices promise to push technology for lightwave electronics applications.

arXiv (2024)

We present an all-optical concept for measuring the electric field of light spanning from infrared to extreme ultraviolet with multi-petahertz detection bandwidth. Our approach employs a heterodyne detection of light produced by a highly nonlinear light-matter interaction gate. We establish a numerical model of a complex spectral response for unambiguous electric field extraction and benchmark it against the experiment. We show that the concept can be applied for measuring wavelengths down to about 60 nm with a high sensitivity and dynamic range of about 40 decibels. This opens up unprecedented perspectives for spatio-temporal electric field-resolved experiments and control of broadband dynamics of matter.

Nature (2023)

Photoinjection of charge carriers profoundly changes the properties of a solid. This manipulation enables ultrafast measurements, such as electric-field sampling, advanced recently to petahertz frequencies, and the real-time study of many-body physics. Nonlinear photoexcitation by a few-cycle laser pulse can be confined to its strongest half-cycle. Describing the associated subcycle optical response, vital for attosecond-scale optoelectronics, is elusive when studied with traditional pump-probe metrology as the dynamics distort any probing field on the timescale of the carrier, rather than that of the envelope. Here we apply field-resolved optical metrology to these dynamics and report the direct observation of the evolving optical properties of silicon and silica during the first few femtoseconds following a near-1-fs carrier injection. We observe that the Drude–Lorentz response forms within several femtoseconds—a time interval much shorter than the inverse plasma frequency. This is in contrast to previous measurements in the terahertz domain and central to the quest to speed up electron-based signal processing.

arXiv (2023)

We present a novel electric-field-resolved approach for probing ultrafast dynamics of localized surface plasmons in metallic nanoparticles. The electric field of the broadband carrier-envelope-phase stable few-cycle light pulse employed in the experiment provides access to time-domain signatures of plasmonic dynamics that are imprinted on the pulse waveform. The simultaneous access to absolute spectral amplitudes and phases of the interacting light allows us obtaining a complex spectral response associated with localized surface plasmons. We benchmark our findings against the absorbance spectrum obtained with a spectrometer as well as the extinction cross-section modeled by a classical Mie scattering theory.