Education: Harvard University A.B. 1975; University of
California, Berkeley M.A. 1978; University of California, Berkeley Ph.D. 1980.
Professor Bucksbaum has several research projects in the Randall Laboratory, in
the NSF Frontier Center for Optical Coherent and Ultrafast Science (FOCUS) at
the University of Michigan, and in other laboratories in the United States and
Europe. Most of these activities involve the study of atoms, electrons , and
simple molecules in the presence of ultrahigh intensity coherent light. The
light is produced by pulsed lasers, which generate amplified beams that can be
focused to intensities exceeding an atomic unit, with pulse durations as short
as 20 femtoseconds. The wavelengths extend from the far infrared to the extreme
ultraviolet. In the infrared, this means durations of only one-half of a field
cycle. The principal application of these intense fields is control of quantum
systems. Professor Bucksbaum is en gaged in experiments that use "half-cycle"
pulses to control quantum "wave packets" in molecules and atoms. His group has
built computer controlled pulse shapers to study problems as diverse as chemical
bonds and quantum chaos. Professor Bucksbaum also uses atomic physics to study
fundamental symmetries in nature. Other experiments include the behavior of
atoms in relativistic plasmas produced by terawatt laser beams, and the
production of coherent vacuum ultraviolet radiation. Graduate students are
involve d in Professor Bucksbaum's work at all levels, including building the
lasers; designing, building, and performing the experiments; and doing
calculations.
Professor Bucksbaum is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of
the America Physical Society, and the Optical Society of America. He is Editor
of VJUltrafast, the APS Virtual Journal of Ultrafast Science. He is also a
recipient of the 2000 Margaret and Herman Sokol Faculty Award in the Sciences.
PULSE Center at
Stanford University
650-926-5337
phb@slac.stanford.edu
Atomic, Molecular, & Optical Experiment
Non-linear optics, precision measurements, high-intensity physics, ultrafast laser physics
Quantum Phase Retrieval of a Rydberg Wave Packet Using a Half-Cycle Pulse, (J. Ahn, D. N. Hutchinson, C. Rangan, P. H. Bucksbaum), Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 1179-1182 (2001).
Coherent Control of Pulsed X-ray Beams, (M. F. DeCamp, D. A. Reis, P. H. Bucksbaum, B. Adams, J. M. Caraher, R. Clarke, C. W. S. Conover, E. M. Dufresne, R. Merlin, V. Stoica, and J. K. Wahlstrand), Nature 413, 825-828 (2001).
News and Views: Particles Driven to Diffraction, (P. H. Bucksbaum), Nature 413, 117-118 (2001).
Qua ntum Information Storage and Retrieval in Rydberg Wave Packets, (J. Ahn, T. C. Weinacht, and P. H. Bucksbaum), Science 287, 463 (2000).
Controlling the Shape of a Quantum Wavefunction, (T. C. Weinacht, J. Ahn, and P. H. Bucksbaum), Nature 397, 233 (1998).
Measurement of the Amplitude and Phase of a Sculpted Rydberg Wave Packet, (T. C. Weinacht, J. Ahn, and P. H. Bucksbaum), Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 5508 (1998).
Ultrafast Structural Changes Measured By Time-Resolved X-ray Diffractio n, (J. Larsson, P. A. Heimann, A. M. Lindenberg, P. J. Schuck, P. H. Bucksbaum, R. W. Lee, H. A. Padmore, J. S. Wark, R. W. Falcone), Applied Physics A 66, 587 (1998).
Resonant Double-Excitation Induced By Wiggling ATI Electrons, (P. H. Bucksbaum, A. Sanpera, and M. Lewenstein), Jour. Phys. B 30, L843 (1997).
Evidence For Resonant Effects in High-Order ATI Spectra, (M. P. Hertlein, P. H. Bucksbaum, and H. G. Muller), Journal of Physics B (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics) 30, L197-2 05 (1997).
Redistribution of Atomic Rydberg States By Tunable Narrow Band Picosecond Far-Infrared Pulses, (C. Raman, M. F. DeCamp and P. H. Bucksbaum), Optics Express 1, 186 (1997).