Biography
Christian Heide received his PhD in Physics from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, in 2020. As a Feodor Lynen Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, he conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University with Professors Tony Heinz, David Reis, and Shambhu Ghimire. Starting in January 2025, Christian will join UCF as an Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in Physics and CREOL. His research focuses on coherent electron control in solids and nanostructures on ultrafast timescales. This includes light-field-controlled quantum electronics and advanced spectroscopic techniques to uncover novel quantum phenomena.
Research Group
We are an experimental physics research group exploring the cutting-edge field of ultrafast lightwave electronics, focusing on the coherent control of solid-state systems at atto- to femtosecond timescales. We aim to unlock new ultrafast spectroscopy and electronics tools by harnessing precisely tailored lightwaves, addressing key challenges in quantum electronics, nano-optics, attosecond science, and energy harvesting. Our work includes developing advanced laser-based techniques, such as sub-cycle resolved lightwave quantum spectroscopy, ultrafast current generation, and Floquet engineering. By leveraging innovative, few-cycle laser sources, we aim to achieve transformative discoveries that shape the future of science and technology. Our interdisciplinary research environment offers students, postdocs, and collaborators an exciting platform to thrive and innovate. We are committed to fostering a diverse, inclusive, and equitable research community where individuals from all backgrounds feel welcome, valued, and empowered to push boundaries and drive innovation.
Currently, we work on three connected research fields: Ultrafast Lightwave Electronics and Photonics, Lightwave Quantum Spectroscopy, and Floquet Engineering. Please visit our homepage to learn more about these research directions.
We are experimental ultrafast laser physicists — a unique superposition of laser engineers, nanostructure- and material synthesizers, mathematicians, computer scientists, architects, electricians, and quantum designers. At our core, we are creative thinkers and problem solvers fueled by curiosity and innovation. Our work discovers the ultrafast quantum world to advance the frontiers of light-matter interaction on attosecond to femtosecond timescales. We are eager to welcome motivated undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs to join us on this exciting journey of discovery and experimentation.
If you are interested in joining our group as a postdoc, grad student, undergraduate student, intern, or visiting student, please get in touch with Prof. Heide.
Publications
Seou Choi, Yannick Salamin, Charles Roques-Carmes, Rumen Dangovski, Di Luo, Zhuo Chen, Michael Horodynki, Jamison Sloan, Shiekh Zia Uddin, Marin Soljacic "Photonic probabilistic machine learning using quantum vacuum noise" Nature Communications 15, 7760 (2024)
Sahil Pontula, Yannick Salamin, Charles Roques-Carmes, Marin Soljacic "Multimode amplitude squeezing through cascaded nonlinear optical processes" arXiv:2405.05201 (2024)
Charles Roques-Carmes, Yannick Salamin, Jamison Sloan, Seou Choi, Gustavo Velez, Ethan Koskas, Nicholas Rivera, Steven E Kooi, John D. Joannopoulos, Marin Soljacic "Biasing the quantum vacuum to control macroscopic probability distribution" Science, vol. 381, no. 6654, p. 205-209 (2023)
Nicholas Rivera, Jamison Sloan, Yannick Salamin, John D. Joannopoulos, Marin Soljacic "Creating large Fock states and massively squeezed states in optics using systems with nonlinear bound states in the continuum" Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 120 (9), e2219208120 (2023)