Matthias Kling
Matthias Kling is a Professor of Photon Science and (by courtesy) of Applied Physics at Stanford University and the Director of the Science, Research and Development (SRD) Division at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Kling received a Diploma in Physics in 1998 and a PhD in Physical Chemistry in 2002 from Goettingen University in Germany. He subsequently was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California at Berkeley and at AMOLF in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. From 2007 Kling led the Research Group on Attosecond Imaging at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) in Garching, Germany, and was Assistant Professor at Kansas-State University from 2009 until 2013. In 2013, he became Professor of Physics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich in Germany and was appointed as Max Planck Fellow at MPQ in 2019. Kling joined Stanford University in 2021, leading the Research Group on Ultrafast Electronics and Nanophotonics and serving as the Director of the SRD Division at LCLS at SLAC.
Areas of Interest and Research
The fastest timescale of electron motion within nanostructures is attoseconds (1 attosecond = 10-18 seconds). We have pioneered the field attosecond nanophotonics and are currently conducting research to extend the state-of-the-art to multi-dimensional spectroscopies, x-ray emission and scattering using intense attosecond XFEL pulses. We aim to explore the dynamics of many-electron effects, including correlation-driven and collective effects. A particularly important open question is the transition from many-body quantum physics to classical dynamics. This will largely impact applications of nanosystems in optoelectronic devices used in ultrafast electronics and computing. As an example, ultrafast plasmonic circuitry can overcome current limitations in resistive electronics and might open an avenue towards quantum computing at ambient temperature.
We also address the question, how aerosolized particles can enable and catalyze light-induced chemical processes. Reaction nanoscopy is a powerful method that is developed in our group for analyzing the surface chemistry on aerosols with nanometer spatial and femtosecond temporal resolution. We aim to advance this technique to solve fundamental questions in astro- and atmospheric chemistry. Among these are the mechanisms of chemical transformations under extreme conditions, where such particles are exposed to high-intensity or high-energy radiation.
We aim to develop, expand, and exploit field-resolved spectroscopies towards higher frequencies in the THz and PHz domains. Opening up these frequency ranges will enable sensitivity to a manyfold of vibrational and electronic transitions in organic electronics and 2D-materials. Field-resolved spectroscopy is a powerful technique that permits addressing the sub-cycle response of a solid to a lightfield. Exploring and controlling many-body excitations and scattering dynamics opens a path for optimized energy conversion in optoelectronic devices. The sub-cycle control of a device builds the basis for lightwave electronics, which may push the speed of computing to its ultimate limit.
We engage in the development of high-average and high-peak power ultrashort light sources. These include optical-parametric chirped pulse amplifiers (OPCPAs) driven by high-power fiber, thin-disk and Innoslab amplifiers. We focus on ultrashort few-cycle pulse generation in the visible and mid-infared spectral region with stable and controllable electric field waveforms. The R&D efforts also include nonlinear tools for pulse characterization. Such capabilities are instrumental in addition to the facility-based light sources in our research on ultrafast nanophotonics, lightwave electronics, and ultrafast x-ray science.
