Bio

Matthias Kling is a Professor of Photon Science and (by courtesy) of Applied Physics at Stanford University and the Director of the Science, Research and Development (SRD) Division at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Kling received a Diploma in Physics in 1998 and a PhD in Physical Chemistry in 2002 from Goettingen University in Germany. He subsequently was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California at Berkeley and at AMOLF in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. From 2007 Kling led the Research Group on Attosecond Imaging at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) in Garching, Germany, and was Assistant Professor at Kansas-State University from 2009 until 2013. In 2013, he became Professor of Physics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich in Germany and was appointed as Max Planck Fellow at MPQ in 2019. Kling joined Stanford University in 2021, leading the Research Group on Ultrafast Electronics and Nanophotonics and serving as the Director of the SRD Division at LCLS at SLAC.

Academic Appointments

Administrative Appointments

  • Professor of Photon Science & Applied Physics (by courtesy), Stanford University (2021 - Present)
  • SRD Division Director, LCLS, SLAC (2021 - Present)
  • Max Planck Fellow, Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Germany (2019 - Present)
  • Professor of Physics, LMU Munich, Germany (2013 - 2021)
  • Assistant Professor of Physics, Kansas-State University (2009 - 2013)
  • Max Planck Group Leader, Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Germany (2007 - 2013)

Honors & Awards

  • APS Fellow, American Physical Society (2019)
  • Max Planck Fellow, Max Planck Society (2019)
  • ERC Starting Grant, European Research Council (2013)
  • Early Career Award, Department of Energy (2012)
  • Heisenberg Fellow, German Research Foundation (2012)
  • Nernst-Haber Bodenstein Prize, German Bunsen Society (2012)
  • Roentgen Prize, Giessen University (2011)
  • Emmy-Noether Fellow, German Research Foundation (2007)
  • Marie-Curie Fellow, European Research Council (2004)
  • Feodor-Lynen Fellow, Alexander von Humboldt foundation (2003)

Professional Education

  • Ph.D., University of Goettingen, Germany, Physical Chemistry (2002)
  • Certificate, Jena University, Germany, Laser Physics (2000)
  • Diploma, University of Goettingen, Germany, Physics (1998)

Contact

  • Academic
    mfkling@slac.stanford.edu
    University - Faculty Department: Energy Sciences Position: Professor
    University - Faculty Department: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Position: Professor
    • 2575 Sand Hill Rd
    • Mailstop 0019
    • Menlo Park,  California  94025 

Additional Info

Links

Current Research and Scholarly Interests

The fastest timescale of electron motion within nanostructures is attoseconds (1 attosecond = 10-18 seconds). We have pioneered the field attosecond nanophotonics and are currently conducting research to extend the state-of-the-art to multi-dimensional spectroscopies, x-ray emission and scattering using intense attosecond XFEL pulses. We aim to explore the dynamics of many-electron effects, including correlation-driven and collective effects. A particularly important open question is the transition from many-body quantum physics to classical dynamics. This will largely impact applications of nanosystems in optoelectronic devices used in ultrafast electronics and computing. As an example, ultrafast plasmonic circuitry can overcome current limitations in resistive electronics and might open an avenue towards quantum computing at ambient temperature.

We also address the question, how aerosolized particles can enable and catalyze light-induced chemical processes. Reaction nanoscopy is a powerful method that is developed in our group for analyzing the surface chemistry on aerosols with nanometer spatial and femtosecond temporal resolution. We aim to advance this technique to solve fundamental questions in astro- and atmospheric chemistry. Among these are the mechanisms of chemical transformations under extreme conditions, where such particles are exposed to high-intensity or high-energy radiation.

We aim to develop, expand, and exploit field-resolved spectroscopies towards higher frequencies in the THz and PHz domains. Opening up these frequency ranges will enable sensitivity to a manyfold of vibrational and electronic transitions in organic electronics and 2D-materials. Field-resolved spectroscopy is a powerful technique that permits addressing the sub-cycle response of a solid to a lightfield. Exploring and controlling many-body excitations and scattering dynamics opens a path for optimized energy conversion in optoelectronic devices. The sub-cycle control of a device builds the basis for lightwave electronics, which may push the speed of computing to its ultimate limit.

We engage in the development of high-average and high-peak power ultrashort light sources. These include optical-parametric chirped pulse amplifiers (OPCPAs) driven by high-power fiber, thin-disk and Innoslab amplifiers. We focus on ultrashort few-cycle pulse generation in the visible and mid-infared spectral region with stable and controllable electric field waveforms. The R&D efforts also include nonlinear tools for pulse characterization. Such capabilities are instrumental in addition to the facility-based light sources in our research on ultrafast nanophotonics, lightwave electronics, and ultrafast x-ray science.

2021-22 Courses

Stanford Advisees

All Publications

  • Broadband Photoconductive Sampling in Gallium Phosphide ADVANCED OPTICAL MATERIALS Altwaijry, N., Qasim, M., Mamaikin, M., Schoetz, J., Golyari, K., Heynck, M., Ridente, E., Yakovlev, V. S., Karpowicz, N., Kling, M. F. 2023

    View details for DOI 10.1002/adom.202202994

    View details for Web of Science ID 000939665800001

  • Ultrafast quantum dynamics driven by the strong space-charge field of a relativistic electron beam OPTICA Cesar, D., Acharya, A., Cryan, J. P., Kartsev, A., Kling, M. F., Lindenberg, A. M., Pemmaraju, C. D., Poletayev, A. D., Yakovlev, V. S., Marinelli, A. 2023; 10 (1): 1-10

    View details for DOI 10.1364/OPTICA.471773

    View details for Web of Science ID 000927471100001

  • Relaxation dynamics in excited helium nanodroplets probed with high resolution, time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY CHEMICAL PHYSICS LaForge, A. C., Asmussen, J. D., Bastian, B., Bonanomi, M., Callegari, C., De, S., Di Fraia, M., Gorman, L., Hartweg, S., Krishnan, S. R., Kling, M. F., Mishra, D., Mandal, S., Ngai, A., Pal, N., Plekan, O., Prince, K. C., Rosenberger, P., Serrata, E., Stienkemeier, F., Berrah, N., Mudrich, M. 2022: 28844-28852

    Abstract

    Superfluid helium nanodroplets are often considered as transparent and chemically inert nanometer-sized cryo-matrices for high-resolution or time-resolved spectroscopy of embedded molecules and clusters. On the other hand, when the helium nanodroplets are resonantly excited with XUV radiation, a multitude of ultrafast processes are initiated, such as relaxation into metastable states, formation of nanoscopic bubbles or excimers, and autoionization channels generating low-energy free electrons. Here, we discuss the full spectrum of ultrafast relaxation processes observed when helium nanodroplets are electronically excited. In particular, we perform an in-depth study of the relaxation dynamics occurring in the lowest 1s2s and 1s2p droplet bands using high resolution, time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. The simplified excitation scheme and improved resolution allow us to identify the relaxation into metastable triplet and excimer states even when exciting below the droplets' autoionization threshold, unobserved in previous studies.

    View details for DOI 10.1039/d2cp03335f

    View details for Web of Science ID 000890034400001

    View details for PubMedID 36422471

  • Strong-Field Control of Plasmonic Properties in Core-Shell Nanoparticles ACS PHOTONICS Powell, J. A., Li, J., Summers, A., Robatjazi, S., Davino, M., Rupp, P., Saydanzad, E., Sorensen, C. M., Rolles, D., Kling, M. F., Trallero, C., Thumm, U., Rudenko, A. 2022

    View details for DOI 10.1021/acsphotonics.2c00663

    View details for Web of Science ID 000878995500001

  • Complementary dispersive mirror pair produced in one coating run based on desired non-uniformity OPTICS EXPRESS Chen, Y., Li, W., Wang, Z., Hahner, D., Kling, M. F., Pervak, V. 2022; 30 (18): 32074-32083

    View details for DOI 10.1364/OE.467664

    View details for Web of Science ID 000850229100045

  • Spatiotemporal sampling of near-petahertz vortex fields OPTICA Bloechl, J., Schoetz, J., Maliakkal, A., Sreibere, N., Wang, Z., Rosenberger, P., Hommelhoff, P., Staudte, A., Corkum, P. B., Bergues, B., Kling, M. F. 2022; 9 (7): 755-761

    View details for DOI 10.1364/OPTICA.459612

    View details for Web of Science ID 000822022700013

  • Imaging elliptically polarized infrared near-fields on nanoparticles by strong-field dissociation of functional surface groups EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL D Rosenberger, P., Dagar, R., Zhang, W., Sousa-Castillo, A., Neuhaus, M., Cortes, E., Maier, S. A., Costa-Vera, C., Kling, M. F., Bergues, B. 2022; 76 (6)

    View details for DOI 10.1140/epjd/s10053-022-00430-6

    View details for Web of Science ID 000817283600001

  • All-optical nanoscopic spatial control of molecular reaction yields on nanoparticles OPTICA Zhang, W., Dagar, R., Rosenberger, P., Sousa-Castillo, A., Neuhaus, M., Li, W., Khan, S. A., Alnaser, A. S., Cortes, E., Maier, S. A., Costa-Vera, C., Kling, M. F., Bergues, B. 2022; 9 (5): 551-560

    View details for DOI 10.1364/OPTICA.453915

    View details for Web of Science ID 000799613700015

  • Few-femtosecond resolved imaging of laser-driven nanoplasma expansion NEW JOURNAL OF PHYSICS Peltz, C., Powell, J. A., Rupp, P., Summers, A., Gorkhover, T., Gallei, M., Halfpap, Antonsson, E., Langer, B., Trallero-Herrero, C., Graf, C., Ray, D., Liu, Q., Osipov, T., Bucher, M., Ferguson, K., Moeller, S., Zherebtsov, S., Rolles, D., Ruehl, E., Coslovich, G., Coffee, R. N., Bostedt, C., Rudenko, A., Kling, M. F., Fennel, T. 2022; 24 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1088/1367-2630/ac5e86

    View details for Web of Science ID 000783683900001

  • Electro-optic characterization of synthesized infrared-visible light fields NATURE COMMUNICATIONS Ridente, E., Mamaikin, M., Altwaijry, N., Zimin, D., Kling, M. F., Pervak, V., Weidman, M., Krausz, F., Karpowicz, N. 2022; 13 (1): 1111

    Abstract

    The measurement and control of light field oscillations enable the study of ultrafast phenomena on sub-cycle time scales. Electro-optic sampling (EOS) is a powerful field characterization approach, in terms of both sensitivity and dynamic range, but it has not reached beyond infrared frequencies. Here, we show the synthesis of a sub-cycle infrared-visible pulse and subsequent complete electric field characterization using EOS. The sampled bandwidth spans from 700 nm to 2700 nm (428 to 110 THz). Tailored electric-field waveforms are generated with a two-channel field synthesizer in the infrared-visible range, with a full-width at half-maximum duration as short as 3.8 fs at a central wavelength of 1.7 µm (176 THz). EOS detection of the complete bandwidth of these waveforms extends it into the visible spectral range. To demonstrate the power of our approach, we use the sub-cycle transients to inject carriers in a thin quartz sample for nonlinear photoconductive field sampling with sub-femtosecond resolution.

    View details for DOI 10.1038/s41467-022-28699-6

    View details for Web of Science ID 000763605200010

    View details for PubMedID 35236857

    View details for PubMedCentralID PMC8891359

  • The emergence of macroscopic currents in photoconductive sampling of optical fields. Nature communications Schotz, J., Maliakkal, A., Blochl, J., Zimin, D., Wang, Z., Rosenberger, P., Alharbi, M., Azzeer, A. M., Weidman, M., Yakovlev, V. S., Bergues, B., Kling, M. F. 2022; 13 (1): 962

    Abstract

    Photoconductive field sampling enables petahertz-domain optoelectronic applications that advance our understanding of light-matter interaction. Despite the growing importance of ultrafast photoconductive measurements, a rigorous model for connecting the microscopic electron dynamics to the macroscopic external signal is lacking. This has caused conflicting interpretations about the origin of macroscopic currents. Here, we present systematic experimental studies on the signal formation in gas-phase photoconductive sampling. Our theoretical model, based on the Ramo-Shockley-theorem, overcomes the previously introduced artificial separation into dipole and current contributions. Extensive numerical particle-in-cell-type simulations permit a quantitative comparison with experimental results and help to identify the roles of electron-neutral scattering and mean-field charge interactions. The results show that the heuristic models utilized so far are valid only in a limited range and are affected by macroscopic effects. Our approach can aid in the design of more sensitive and more efficient photoconductive devices.

    View details for DOI 10.1038/s41467-022-28412-7

    View details for PubMedID 35181662

  • Attosecond coherent electron motion in Auger-Meitner decay. Science (New York, N.Y.) Li, S., Driver, T., Rosenberger, P., Champenois, E. G., Duris, J., Al-Haddad, A., Averbukh, V., Barnard, J. C., Berrah, N., Bostedt, C., Bucksbaum, P. H., Coffee, R. N., DiMauro, L. F., Fang, L., Garratt, D., Gatton, A., Guo, Z., Hartmann, G., Haxton, D., Helml, W., Huang, Z., LaForge, A. C., Kamalov, A., Knurr, J., Lin, M., Lutman, A. A., MacArthur, J. P., Marangos, J. P., Nantel, M., Natan, A., Obaid, R., O'Neal, J. T., Shivaram, N. H., Schori, A., Walter, P., Wang, A. L., Wolf, T. J., Zhang, Z., Kling, M. F., Marinelli, A., Cryan, J. P. 1800: eabj2096

    Abstract

    [Figure: see text].

    View details for DOI 10.1126/science.abj2096

    View details for PubMedID 34990213

  • Efficient nonlinear compression of a thin-disk oscillator to 8.5 fs at 55 W average power OPTICS LETTERS Barbiero, G., Wang, H., Grassl, M., Groebmeyer, S., Kimbaras, D., Neuhaus, M., Pervak, V., Nubbemeyer, T., Fattahi, H., Kling, M. F. 2021; 46 (21): 5304-5307

    Abstract

    We demonstrate an efficient hybrid-scheme for nonlinear pulse compression of high-power thin-disk oscillator pulses to the sub-10 fs regime. The output of a home-built, 16 MHz, 84 W, 220 fs Yb:YAG thin-disk oscillator at 1030 nm is first compressed to 17 fs in two nonlinear multipass cells. In a third stage, based on multiple thin sapphire plates, further compression to 8.5 fs with 55 W output power and an overall optical efficiency of 65% is achieved. Ultrabroadband mid-infrared pulses covering the spectral range 2.4-8µm were generated from these compressed pulses by intra-pulse difference frequency generation.

    View details for DOI 10.1364/OL.440303

    View details for Web of Science ID 000713723300004

    View details for PubMedID 34724461

  • Onset of charge interaction in strong-field photoemission from nanometric needle tips NANOPHOTONICS Schoetz, J., Seiffert, L., Maliakkal, A., Bloechl, J., Zimin, D., Rosenberger, P., Bergues, B., Hommelhoff, P., Krausz, F., Fennel, T., Kling, M. F. 2021; 10 (14): 3769-3775

    View details for DOI 10.1515/nanoph-2021-0276

    View details for Web of Science ID 000712886600020

  • Tunable isolated attosecond X-ray pulses with gigawatt peak power from a free-electron laser NATURE PHOTONICS Duris, J., Li, S., Driver, T., Champenois, E. G., MacArthur, J. P., Lutman, A. A., Zhang, Z., Rosenberger, P., Aldrich, J. W., Coffee, R., Coslovich, G., Decker, F., Glownia, J. M., Hartmann, G., Helml, W., Kamalov, A., Knurr, J., Krzywinski, J., Lin, M., Nantel, M., Natan, A., O'Neal, J., Shivaram, N., Walter, P., Wang, A., Welch, J. J., Wolf, T. A., Xu, J. Z., Kling, M. F., Bucksbaum, P. H., Zholents, A., Huang, Z., Cryan, J. P., Marinelli, A., Marangos, J. P. 2020; 14 (1): 30-+

    View details for DOI 10.1038/s41566-019-0549-5

    View details for Web of Science ID 000504727600007

  • Attosecond transient absorption spooktroscopy: a ghost imaging approach to ultrafast absorption spectroscopy. Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP Driver, T., Li, S., Champenois, E. G., Duris, J., Ratner, D., Lane, T. J., Rosenberger, P., Al-Haddad, A., Averbukh, V., Barnard, T., Berrah, N., Bostedt, C., Bucksbaum, P. H., Coffee, R., DiMauro, L. F., Fang, L., Garratt, D., Gatton, A., Guo, Z., Hartmann, G., Haxton, D., Helml, W., Huang, Z., LaForge, A., Kamalov, A., Kling, M. F., Knurr, J., Lin, M., Lutman, A. A., MacArthur, J. P., Marangos, J. P., Nantel, M., Natan, A., Obaid, R., O'Neal, J. T., Shivaram, N. H., Schori, A., Walter, P., Li Wang, A., Wolf, T. J., Marinelli, A., Cryan, J. P. 2019

    Abstract

    The recent demonstration of isolated attosecond pulses from an X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) opens the possibility for probing ultrafast electron dynamics at X-ray wavelengths. An established experimental method for probing ultrafast dynamics is X-ray transient absorption spectroscopy, where the X-ray absorption spectrum is measured by scanning the central photon energy and recording the resultant photoproducts. The spectral bandwidth inherent to attosecond pulses is wide compared to the resonant features typically probed, which generally precludes the application of this technique in the attosecond regime. In this paper we propose and demonstrate a new technique to conduct transient absorption spectroscopy with broad bandwidth attosecond pulses with the aid of ghost imaging, recovering sub-bandwidth resolution in photoproduct-based absorption measurements.

    View details for DOI 10.1039/c9cp03951a

    View details for PubMedID 31793561

  • Generation and Characterization of Attosecond Pulses from an X-ray Free-electron Laser Li, S., Rosenberger, P., Champenois, E. G., Driver, T., Bucksbaum, P. H., Coffee, R., Gatton, A., Hartmann, G., Helml, W., Huang, Z., Knurr, J., Kling, M. F., Lin, M., MacArthur, J. P., Maxwell, T. J., Nantel, M., Natan, A., Oneal, J. T., Shivaram, N. H., Walter, P., Wolf, T. A., Cryan, J. P., Marinelli, A., IEEE IEEE. 2019

    View details for Web of Science ID 000482226301273

  • Roadmap on plasmonics JOURNAL OF OPTICS Stockman, M. I., Kneipp, K., Bozhevolnyi, S. I., Saha, S., Dutta, A., Ndukaife, J., Kinsey, N., Reddy, H., Guler, U., Shalaev, V. M., Boltasseva, A., Gholipour, B., Krishnamoorthy, H. S., MacDonald, K. F., Soci, C., Zheludev, N. I., Savinov, V., Singh, R., Gross, P., Lienau, C., Vadai, M., Solomon, M. L., Barton, D. R., Lawrence, M., Dionne, J. A., Boriskina, S. V., Esteban, R., Aizpurua, J., Zhang, X., Yang, S., Wang, D., Wang, W., Odom, T. W., Accanto, N., de Roque, P. M., Hancu, I. M., Piatkowski, L., van Hulst, N. F., Kling, M. F. 2018; 20 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1088/2040-8986/aaa114

    View details for Web of Science ID 000447428100001

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1710-0775