Science and society depend on novel and rapid advances in optical science now as never before.Coherent and ultrafast optical physics will be at the forefront of some of the most ambitious and exciting advances in physics in the next two decades.The FOCUS mission is to provide national leadership in the areas of coherent control, ultrafast, and high field physics.
FOCUS will extend the frontiers of the discipline:the production, control and utilization of sub-picosecond, and eventually sub-femtosecond, pulses; coherent manipulation of molecular bonds and intramolecular dynamics; physics of ultrahigh (I>1020W/cm2) laser fields; and the control of entanglement in ultracold atoms and ions.The coherent field strengths under direct control will span 18 orders of magnitude, from ultrarelativistic laser-driven plasmas (TV/cm) to control fields in cooled ion traps (mV/cm).Laser driven particle energies will range from GeV to neV.Much of the coherent control physics developed in one area is applicable to another.
The research at FOCUS is divided into three major research components, or MRC’s:

High Field Control MRC:Ultra-intense lasers enable a broad range of new fundamental physics and applications through coherent control of the relativistic motion of charged particles. This MRC will explore the frontier of intense-laser development, relativistic nonlinear optics, laser-driven plasma physics and cluster physics, with potential applications in nuclear science, astrophysics, accelerators, material science, and medicine. For more details click here.

Ultrafast Control MRC -- Measurement and Coherent Control:This MRC will develop ultrafast optical pulse sculpting, couple it to other advanced techniques such as adaptive learning algorithms, and advance the frontiers of coherent control.The grand challenges that can be addressed by these advances include coherent control of molecular dynamics, control of electrical current in semiconductors, control of phonons in crystals, and coherent modulation of radiation, from far-infrared pulses to x-rays produced at synchrotrons and future x-ray free electron lasers. For more details click here.

Quantum Control MRC -- Controlling Quantum Coherence:This MRC will study the control of quantum systems with radiation and push the limits of quantum complexity and quantum fidelity toward large-scale quantum information processing. Frontier challenges include developing quantum systems in which many degrees of freedom may be entangled; developing systems that are resistant to decoherence; creating new technological applications for quantum control.This new quantum technology is absolutely necessary for practical applications of quantum information science.We will not focus on a single implementation of quantum control, but will use the broad range of expertise within FOCUS to progress in several areas:ion traps, cooled atoms, Rydberg states, and quantum wave packet sculpting. For more details click here.

FOCUS Programs:FOCUS has several programs that may be of interest to Web visitors.The Fellows program allows outside researchers access to the state-of-the-art high field laser systems developed in the FOCUS center, as well as foment collaborations and cross-fertilization of ideas between internal and external scientists in all areas of the FOCUS mission.The Seed Funding program, open to faculty in participating FOCUS departments, provides resources to pursue new ideas in ultrafast and coherent optical science.FOCUS education programs include joint Texas-Michigan graduate courses, undergraduate research opportunities, and graduate research fellowships.

Contact FOCUS:Please contact us if you would like more information about FOCUS. Send questions or comments via email to mamurn@umich.edu.Thanks for stopping by!

Chris Monroe FOCUS Director Ann Arbor Michigan, March, 2006

FOCUS Contact Information Professor Chris Monroe, Director,Randall Laboratory,University of Michigan,500 East University Ave.,Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1120 Phone: (734) 764-8459, Fax: (734) 764-5153 email:mamurn@umich.edu