Strong laser field interaction with atoms and molecules: ultrashort pulse generation and coherent control of electron dynamics

The Italian and Romanian partners have a recognized research in the field of strong laser field interaction with atoms and molecules. The Naples and Milan-Politecnico research group have matured a long experience in the so-called high field physics, particularly in HHG. The romanian group has studied the propagation effects in HHG in long generating media, and using specially prepared laser pulses. The collaboration will take advantage of the aquired research capabilities of the two partners. The theoretical effort of the romanian team will be to reproduce by numerical simulations and ultimately explain the experimental data. The experiments will be performed in the laboratories of Milan Politecnico and Napoli University. There are three main objectives which will be followed during the development of the project: 1. Characterization of single attosecond XUV pulse from experimental and numerical point of view 2. Propagation effects in harmonic generation from aligned molecules 3. Laser pulse compression in the visible range by means of hollow fiber technique