Arvinder Sandhu
Classification: Primary Faculty
Education: Ph.D. 2005, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India
Fields of Study:
Research Interests:
The field of attosecond science provides exciting opportunities for ultrafast measurement and control at the level of electrons. My research is geared towards the new applications of attosecond spectroscopy to address questions in the areas of Atomic and Molecular Physics, Chemical Physics and Nanomaterials. Research projects in my lab focus on the 1) Generation and application of high-flux attosecond x-ray pulses, 2) Study of charge migration and coupled electron-nuclear dynamics in molecules, 3) Electronic wavepacket dynamics and decoherence, 4) Control of electronic processes with laser fields, 5) Exciton dynamics and electron correlations in two-dimensional materials. Recently, we demonstrated the use of extreme ultraviolet, attosecond light bursts to strobe the motion of an electron in a polyatomic molecule and film its coherent evolution near a conical intersection. At this intersection, the simple energy landscape picture breaks down and the electron is essentially at molecular crossroads. Our results shed light on the question of how strongly electrons and nuclei influence each other during charge transfer.
Honors and Awards:
Distinguished Scholar Award, University of Arizona (2017)
CAREER Award, National Science Foundation (2010)
Excellence in Undergraduate Physics Teaching, University of Arizona (2010)
Young Scientist Medal, Indian National Science Academy (2007)
Selected Publications:
Nathan Harkema, Jens Baekhoj, Chen-Ting Liao, Mette Gaarde, Ken Schafer, Arvinder Sandhu, “Controlling attosecond transient absorption with tunable, non-commensurate light fields” Optics Letters 14, 3357 (2018).
Henry Timmers, Zheng Li, Niranjan Shivaram, Robin Santra, Oriol Vendrell, and Arvinder Sandhu, “Coherent electron hole dynamics near a conical intersection” Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 113003 (2014).
Adam Roberts, Rolf Binder, Nai-Hang Kwong, Dheeraj Golla, Daniel Cormode, Brian LeRoy, Henry Everitt, Arvinder Sandhu, “Optical characterization of electron-phonon interactions at the saddle point in graphene”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 187401 (2014).
Niranjan Shivaram, Henry Timmers, Xiao-Min Tong, and Arvinder Sandhu, “Attosecond-resolved evolution of a laser-dressed Helium atom: Interfering excitation paths and quantum phases” Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 193002 (2012).
Adam Roberts. Daniel Cormode, Collin Reynolds, Ty Newhouse-Illige, Brian LeRoy, Arvinder Sandhu, “Response of graphene to femtosecond high-intensity laser irradiation” Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 051912 (2011).