What's New?

New content and hot topics in the JRM Lab.

Local Research in the News

JRM Professor Daniel Rolles and his group have published a video article in JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments. They describe the key steps for performing and analyzing pump-probe experiments combining a femtosecond optical laser with a free-electron laser in order to study ultrafast photochemical reactions in gas-phase molecules. This work utilizes the CAMP instrument at FLASH, a soft x-ray free electron laser that is part of the German DESY laboratory. Daniel has also been newly awarded a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (NSF CAREER) grant.
In related developments. a group including both professors Daniel Rolles and Artem Rudenko have published new work conducted at the American hard x-ray FEL, the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). The paper appeared in October in Nature Communications, and is the subject of a press release from DESY.
The latest work by Uwe Thumm's group has been featured on the cover of the 01 June issue of Physical Review Letters. The paper is titled "Imaging plasmonic fields with atomic spatiotemporal resolution".
A recent Physical Review Letter by the Ben-Itzhak and Esry groups has been featured in the "Physics Update" section of the May Physics Today.
Derrek Wilson, a JRM doctoral student, was selected as the 2017 Ultrafast Optics XI Conference award winner in the Ultrafast Optical Phenomena Technical Group Outstanding Poster Presentation Award. Derrek presented his poster "Generating few-cycle pulses in the long wave infrared for use in strong field science" in Jackson, Wyoming, October 8-13. Derrek received a certificate as well as a monetary prize.
JRM graduate student Adam Summers was recently invited by the Department of Defense (DoD) to serve as a featured speaker at the inaugural Science, Technology, and Innovation Exchange (STIx) event. The event showcased the impacts made by DoD science and technology investments, outcomes, and innovations.
See older press releases concerning ultrafast physics at JRM.

Hot Topics

Adam Summers has been awarded the 2018 Laser Technology, Engineering and Applications Scholarship by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, for his potential contributions to the field of optics, photonics or related field. See our news release for more.
We have been granted funding from the Department of Defense under the Office of Naval Research. The grant, awarded to former K-State Physics assistant professor Carlos Trallero and current graduate research assistant Derrek Wilson, will fund research to study the interaction of intense, long-wavelength, short pulses with solids and molecules. In addition, the proposal will allow the development of new techniques for the characterization of short pulses in this spectral region. Learn more from the KSU press release.
Wednesday, 16 May 2018 is the International Day of Light. The UNESCO sponsored event provides an annual focal point for the continued appreciation of light and the role it plays in science, culture, art, and education. It will be celebrated by physicists attending CLEO that day, as well as in other OSA organized activities.
Following an internal search, the College of Arts and Sciences has named Kristan Corwin as the new associate dean for research. Since June 2017, Corwin has served as interim associate dean for research of the university's largest college, serving 22 academic departments, two ROTC programs, and two research centers. She succeeds Beth Montelone, who is now senior associate vice president for research. Corwin holds the rank of professor of physics and held the Ernest K. and Lillian E. Chapin professor in the Physics department. See more via the KSU press release.
Teams led by three Kansas State University researchers have been awarded National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation grants. The grants will provide more than $2.5 million to advance understanding of lipids, agriculturally significant gases and nanoparticles, as well as student training and regional research capacity. One project was proposed by our own Kristan Corwin and Brian Washburn. Another comes from our frequent collaborator in the Chemistry department, Christine Aikens.
The latest edition of the Division of Laser Science newsletter is available.

Web Site Updates

The new book Attosecond and Strong-Field Physics was a recent home page feature story. The book is published by Cambridge University Press and will be available in June from booksellers everywhere. CD Lin, Anh-Thu Le, Cheng Jin, and Hui Wei collaborated to produce the volume. Aimed at beginning graduate students, the book provides an intuitive approach to these emerging fields.
See all the latest news from the KSU Physics Department, including the latest edition of the departmental newsletter.