Experimental Research Groups

Our experimental research groups and links to some of their recent research results.

Itzik Ben-Itzhak's Group

Itzik's group studies ionization and dissociation of molecules in intense laser fields.

Measurements of Ultrashort Intense Laser-induced Fragmentation of Simple Molecular Ions
PhD disseration of Max Sayler.
Soft fragmentation of carbon monoxide by slow highly charged ions
E. Wells, T. Nishide, H. Tawara, R. L. Watson, K. D. Carnes, I. Ben-Itzhak
Phys. Rev. A 77, 64701 (2008)

Lew Cocke's Group

Lew's group is pioneering techniques for momentum imaging of ion and molecule collisions.

Momentum Imaging Studies of Electron and Ion dynamics in a Strong Laser Field
The PhD disseration of Chakra Man Maharjan.
Soft X-ray-Driven Femtosecond Molecular Dynamics
Published in Science and the subject of a JRM Lab feature story.

Zenghu Chang's Group

Zenghu's group operates the Kansas Light Source and is studying fundamental photon-atom processes and high harmonic generation.

Generation of Intense High Harmonics
The PhD dissertation of Mahendra Man Shakya.
The Attosecond Revolution
This article by Paul Corkum and Zenghu Chang is the cover story in the October Optics & Photonics News. The full text is available as a web page or as an Acrobat file.

Kristan Corwin's Group

Kristan and her LUMOS group focus on optical metrology. They are studying optical frequency metrology using ultrafast lasers and supercontinuum generation.

Optical frequency measurements in the near-IR toward portable frequency references
PhD dissertation of Rajesh Thapa.
Significant Carrier Envelope Offset Frequency Linewidth Narrowing in a Prism-Based Cr:Forsterite Frequency Comb
Karl A. Tillman, Rajesh Thapa, Brian R. Washburn, Kristan L. Corwin
CLEO/QELS OSA Tech. Digest CTuC, 05 (2008)

Brett DePaola's Group

Brett's group is using atoms in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) as the ultimate cold target for ion-atom collision studies.

Photoassociative Ionization in Cold Rubidium
The PhD dissertation and defense presentation of Marc Trachy.
Photoassociation in cold atoms via ladder excitation
M.L. Trachy, G. Veshapidze, M.H. Shah, H.U. Jang, B.D. DePaola
Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 43003 (2007)

Vinod Kumarappan's Group

Vinod is our newest faculty member and is assembling his lab to study ultrafast processes in strong laser field aligned molecules.

Aligning molecules with long or short laser pulses
V. Kumarappan, S. S. Viftrup, L. Holmegaard, C. Z. Bisgaard, H. Stapelfeldt
Phys. Scr. 76, C63-C68 (2007)

Igor Litvinyuk's Group

Igor is studying Coulomb explosion imaging of molecular dynamics and laser alignment of molecules in gas phase.

Wavelength-dependent study of strong-field Coulomb explosion of hydrogen
Published in the New Journal of Physics and the subject of a JRM feature story.
Direct Coulomb-explosion imaging of coherent nuclear dynamics induced by few-cycle laser pulses in light and heavy hydrogen
I. A. Bocharova, H. Mashiko, M. Magrakvelidze, D. Ray, P. Ranitovic, C. L. Cocke, I. V. Litvinyuk
Phys. Rev. A 77, 53407 (2008)

Pat Richard's Group

Pat's group now studies carbon nanotubes by electron emission following femtosecond pump-probe laser pulses. Earlier work was in electron spectroscopy.

Auger electron spectroscopy of double and triple capture in fluorine on argon collisions
A seminar by Arifa Habib available as HTML or PowerPoint (8.7 MB).
Probing the intrinsic conductivity of multiwalled carbon nanotubes
Mikhail Zamkov, Ali S. Alnaser, Bing Shan, Zenghu Chang, Patrick Richard
Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 93111 (2006)

Brian Washburn's Group

Brian and his UNFO group are finding ways to use nonlinear fiber optics and ultrafast fiber lasers for optical metrology and atomic physics.

See Brian's research page and lab weblog for details.
"Suppression of pump-induced frequency noise in fiber-laser frequency combs leading to sub-radian fceo phase excursions"
J. McFerran, W.C. Swann, B. R. Washburn, N. R. Newbury
Applied Physics B 86, 219 (2007)

Experiment Groups