Biography
Zenghu Chang is a Distinguished Professor of Physics and Optics at the University of Central Florida, where he directs the Institute for the Frontier of Attosecond Science and Technology. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society.
Chang graduated from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 1982. He then earned a doctorate at the Xi’an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 1988. From 1991 to 1993, Chang visited the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory sponsored by the Royal Society fellowship. He worked at the University of Michigan after 1996. Then joined the physics faculty at Kansas State University in 2001, where he was later promoted to the Ernest & Lillian Chapin Professor.
Dr. Chang has published 150 papers in the field of ultrafast high power lasers, ultrafast XUV/X-ray science and strong field AMO physics. His notable contributions include inventing the Double Optical Gating for the generation of single isolated attosecond pulses. His group generated the shortest laser pulse, 67 as, which is the current world record. He is the author of the book “Fundamentals of Attosecond Optics.”
Awards & Honors
- American Physical Society (APS) Fellow
- 2016 Pegasus Professor
- 2015 Excellence in Research (College Award)
- 2007 Mercator Professorship, German Science Foundation (DFG)
- 1996 Hubert Schardin Gold Medal
- 1995 The First Class Award for Young Scientists, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- 1994 Young Expert of the Year with Outstanding Contributions, Ministry of Personnel, China
Research Group
Attosecond science, terawatt femtosecond laser, ultrafast atomic physics, coherent XUV and x-ray sources, high order harmonic generation, X-ray streak camera and other detectors, near and mid-infrared femtosecond sources.Scientists
Students
Publications
Fangjie Zhou, Adrian Cintron, Yi Wu, and Zenghu Chang "Enhancement of gain and efficiency of Ho:YLF energy boosters through deep thermoelectric cooling" Optics Continuum 1, 1060-1066 (2022). (2022)
Y.J. Chai, X.M. Yu, H. Cheng, Z.H. Chang, L. Tetard, M. Bass and M.J. Soileau "Surface structure evolution and Raman response for multipulse, few-cycle, laser damaged ZnSe" Optics Express, 29(10), pp. 15023-15030 (2021)
N. Saito, N. Douguet, H. Sannohe, N. Ishii, T. Kanai, Y. Wu, A. Chew, S. Han, B.I. Schneider, J. Olsen, L. Argenti, Z.H. Chang and J. Itatan "Attosecond electronic dynamics of core-excited states of N2O in the soft x-ray region" Physical Review Research, 3(4), A. 043222 (2021)
K. Murari, F.J. Zhou, Y.C. Yin, Y. Wu, B. Weaver, T. Avni, E. Larsen and Z. Chang "Ho:YLF amplifier with Ti:Sapphire frontend for pumping mid-infrared optical parametric amplifier" Applied Physics Letters, 117(14), A. 141102 (2020)
J.L. Li, Y. Wang, T.Y. Guo, J. White, M. Weidman, Y. Wu, K. Hu, M.F. Jager, C.J. Kaplan, R. Geneaux, D.M. Neumark, S.R. Leone, G.G. Browns, P. Corkum and Z. Chang "Beam optimization in a 25 TW femtosecond laser system for high harmonic generation" Journal of Physics B: Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics, 53(14), A. 145602 (2020)
J. Li, J. Lu, A. Chew, S. Han, J.L. Li, Y. Wu, H. Wang, S. Ghimire and Z. Chang "Attosecond science based on high harmonic generation from gases and solids" Nature Communications, 11(1), A. 2748 (2020)
Krishna Murari, Fangjie Zhou, Yanchun Yin, Yi Wu, Bruce Weaver, Timur Avni, Esben Larsen, Zenghu Chang "Ho: YLF amplifier with Ti: Sapphire frontend for pumping mid-infrared optical parametric amplifier" Appl. Phys. Lett. 117, 141102 (2020) (2020)
Y.J. Chai, X. Yu, H. Cheng, A. Chew, Z. Chang, M. Bass and M.J. Soileau "Single-shot intense few-cycle pulse interaction with polycrystalline ZnSe" Optics Letters, 45(12), pp. 3216-3219 (2020)
Y. Wu, F.J. Zhou, E.W. Larsen, F.J. Zhuang, Y.C. Yin and Z. Chang "Generation of few-cycle multimillijoule 2.5 µm pulses from a single-stage Cr2+:ZnSe amplifier" Scientific Reports, 10(1), A. 7775 (2020)
Z. Zhu, J. White, Z. Chang, and S. Pang "Attosecond pulse retrieval from noisy streaking traces with conditional variational generative network" Scientific Reports, 43583 (2020)
Z. Zhu, Y. Sun, J. White, Z. Chang, and S. Pang "Signal retrieval with measurement system knowledge using variational generative model" IEEE Access, 8(1), pp. 47963-47972 (2020)
N. Saito, H. Sannohe, N. Ishii, T. Kanai, N. Kosugi, Y. Wu, A. Chew, S. Han, Z. Chang, and J. Itatani "Real-time observation of electronic, vibrational, and rotational dynamics in nitric oxide with attosecond soft x-ray pulses at 400 eV" Optica 6(12), pp. 1542-1546 (2019)
X.M. Ren, Y. Wang, Z. Chang, J. Welch, A. Bernstein, M. Downer, J. Brown, M. Gaarde, A. Couairon, M. Kolesik, and P. Polynkin "In-line spectral interferometry in shortwave-infrared laser filaments in air" Physical Review Letters, 123(22), 223203 (2019)
J. Li, A. Chew, S.Y. Hu, J. White, X.M. Ren, S. Han, Y.C. Yin, Y. Wang, Y. Wu, and Z. Chang "Double optical gating for generating high flux isolated attosecond pulses in the soft X-ray regime" Optics Express, 27(21), pp. 30280-30286 (2019)
Z. Chang "Enhancing keV high harmonic signals generated by long-wave infrared lasers" OSA Continuum, 2(7), pp. 2131-2136 (2019)
J. White and Z. Chang "Attosecond streaking phase retrieval with neural network" Optics Express, 27(4), pp. 4799-4807 (2019)
Z. Chang "Compensating chirp of attosecond X-ray pulses by a neutral hydrogen gas" OSA Continuum, 2(2), pp. 314-319 (2019)
Z. Chang "Attosecond chirp compensation in water window by plasma dispersion" Optics Express, 26(25), pp. 33238-33244 (2018)
X. Ren, L. H. Mach, Y. Yin, Y. Wang, and Z. Chang "Generation of 1 kHz, 2.3 mJ, 88 fs, 2.5 µm pulses from a Cr2+:ZnSe chirped pulse amplifier" Optics Letters, 43, pp. 3381 (2018)
X. Ren, J. Li, Y. Yin, K. Zhao, A. Chew, Y. Wang, S. Hu, Y. Cheng, E. Cunningham, Y. Wu, M. Chini and Z. Chang "Attosecond light sources in the water window" Journal of Optics 20, 023001 (2018)
Alumni
PhD
Andrew Chew, Optics Ph.D., Summer 2020Jie Li, Optics Ph.D., Spring 2018
Yang Wang, Optics Ph.D., Fall 2017
Yan Cheng, Physics Ph.D., Fall 2015
Eric Cunningham, Optics Ph.D., Fall 2015
Qi Zhang, Optics Ph.D., Summer 2014
Yi Wu, Optics Ph.D., Fall 2013
MS
Shuyuan Hu, Optics M.S., Spring 2018Hanfu Kong, Optics M.S., Spring 2018
Adrian Tatulian, Optics M.S., Fall 2015