Postdoctoral Fellowship: MPS-Ascend: Attosecond Dynamics in Multi-Photon Molecular Ionization

Carlos Marante Valdes is awarded an NSF Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (NSF MPS-Ascend) to conduct a program of research and broader impacts. This fellowship to Dr. Marante Valdes supports the research project entitled “Postdoctoral Fellowship: MPS-Ascend: Attosecond dynamics in multi-photon molecular ionization” under the mentorship of a sponsoring scientist. The host institution for the fellowship is the University of Central Florida, and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Luca Argenti. This award takes advantage of the development of ultrafast laser technology over the last few decades, which has made possible to study the electronic and nuclear dynamics, in molecules, on their natural time scale. The nuclei in a molecule vibrate with an oscillation period of several femtoseconds, while the electronic motion occurs in a time span of several attoseconds, one billionth of a billionth of a second. The PI intends to simulate the effect that laser pulses with arbitrary duration and polarization have in molecular targets, at a computational cost much lower than the full propagation of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. The PI plans to mentor undergraduate and graduate students as part of this work. In particular, recitations and individual mentoring will be provided to prepare the graduate students for the candidacy exams. The PI will also assist in the supervision of high-school students conducting research projects in the scientific mentor’s group and participate in outreach activities outside UCF directed to increase participation of students in science workshops and competitions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.