Nearly all modern computational, communication, sensing, and other high technologies rely on generation and detection of electric currents in semiconductors. The currents are attributed to a fundamental process of charge-carrier transfer influenced by at least two processes: action of time-dependent electric field and electron-particle collisions. Basic estimates suggest the ultimate speed of drift-current electronic devices is in the range between 1 and 10 GHz. To progress beyond this basic limit, one needs a qualitatively new concept of charge transfer in materials. In this talk, we discuss ultrafast processes of charge generation and non-collision transfer driven by few-cycle laser pulses in semiconductor-metal micro- and nano-devices. Use of the extremely short few-cycle pulses (with typical duration from 3 to 7 fs) promises capabilities to operate transistors, diodes, sensors, and other micro-electronic devices at sub-PHz and PHz frequencies. This means an increase of the currently available capabilities by some 5 orders of magnitude. We discuss mechanisms of the ultrafast laser-driven charge dynamics that can drive electric currents in ballistic (i. e., non-collision) regime. Detection and measurement of carrier-envelope phase of few-cycle laser pulses is considered in this connection because of two reasons. First, the influence of this parameter provides an extra capability to control the laser-driven currents. Second, detection of the phase serves as one of direct confirmations of the non-collision regime of the laser-driven electric currents.

The speaker acknowledges access to the nanofabrication facilities of the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT) at the Sandia National Labs utilized for fabrication of the metal-semiconductor structures.

Dr. Vitaly Gruzdev received Honors MS degree in Optical Engineering and Devices in 1994 from Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics, St. Petersburg, Russia. He received PhD in Optics in 2000 from Vavilov State Optical Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia. In 2001-2003 he was a visiting researcher with the group of Prof. Dr. D. von der Linde (University of Essen, Germany). In 2005 he joined the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, USA. Since 2019, Dr. Gruzdev is an Associate Research Professor with the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA). Theory and simulations of high-intensity ultrafast laser interactions with transparent solids, nonlinear absorption, photoionization, basic mechanisms of laser-induced damage, and ultrafast laser-surface interactions are his major areas of research interests and expertise. He has co-authored more than 150 publications including journal papers, papers in conference proceedings, three book chapters, and one US patent. In 2020, he was one of the 13 US scientists awarded with a Newton Award for Transformative Ideas during the COVID-19 Pandemic by Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and Basic Research Office at the US Department of Defense. He co-chaired Laser Damage Symposium (also known as Boulder Damage Symposium) from 2009 through 2022. He is a co-chair of SPIE High Power Laser Ablation conference since 2022. He was an Associate Editor of Optical Engineering in 201 - 2023. He is a Senior Member of Optica (former OSA) since 2016 and SPIE since 2021.