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Published on: November 11, 2013
Fieldoscopy at the quantum limit
Dmitry A Zimin1,2, Arjun Ashoka3, Florentin Reiter4,5
1Cavendish Laboratory, Department of Physics, Cambridge University, CB3 0HF, Cambridge, United Kingdom. dzimin@ethz.ch.
None:
We demonstrate a novel concept for measuring time-varying electric field transients of petahertz-scale photons down to a single-photon regime. We observe a clear breakdown of the classical regime consistent with our Monte Carlo model. We reach unprecedented yoctojoule-level (10⁻²⁴ J) sensitivity and a dynamic range exceeding 90 decibels. We utilize this capability to measure intrapulse light coherence - a regime inaccessible to conventional, time-averaged spectroscopy. This opens new avenues for quantum information, cryptography, and quantum light-matter interactions on sub-cycle time scales with attosecond precision.
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