Quantum Dynamics
At a most fundamental level, electronic motion determines all aspect of technology and life. Electrons determine whether and how a molecule dissociates and how a chemical reaction occurs; electrons sustain the energy flow in human vision or of our nerve system, and they determine whether biological life ends.
Our aim is to zoom into the microcosm of electronic motion to observe and possibly control their dynamics. The research therefore deals with a wide range of aspects from the quantum nature of electronic correlation to tracking their dynamics on the attosecond timescale despite velocities thousand times faster than that of the nuclei. We have, e.g. pioneered attosecond angular streaking (also called "Attoclock"), which permits attosecond resolution measurements of electron wavepackets without attosecond x-ray pulses. Currently, we use a reaction microscope to investigate the concerted motion of electrons and ions on their attosecond timescale and to realize self-imaging of molecular structure via laser-induced electron diffraction (LIED). LIED was used to image the structure of molecules with atomic resolution and it could visualize how a molecular bond breaks with sub-femtosecond temporal resolution.