CV of Prof. Dr. See Leang Chin

See Leang Chin received his BS and PhD degrees in Physics from University of Waterloo in Canada in 1966 and 1969, respectively. After his PhD, Dr. Chin joined in Laval University, Canada, in 1969. Since then he has worked in Laval University for more than 40 years till now. Prof. S.L. Chin’s expertise covers on ultrafast intense laser propagation and filamentation, fs laser induced fluorescence, intense laser ionization, dissociation, atoms and molecules, ultrafast laser material processing. Among them, he was the first to confirm experimentally the existence of laser tunnel ionization of atoms with a CO2 laser (S.L. Chin, et al, J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Phys. 18, L213, 1985).

- First observation of suppressed ionization of molecules using femtosecond intense Ti-sapphire laser.

- First confirmation of charge-resonance-enhanced-ionization in molecules.

- Pioneering experiments showing inner valence/shell electron ejection by femtosecond laser pulses.

- First observation of the signature of the universal phenomenon of population trapping in an atom through multiphoton dynamic resonance with the Rydberg states and interference stabilization using an intense femtosecond Ti-sapphire laser. The experimental signature has escaped observation in the past 30 years.

- First observation of non-sequential multiple electrons emission from atoms and molecules.

- First observation of high order harmonic generation in molecules.

S.L. Chin is among the leading scientists to advance the fundamental understanding and prospective applications of filamentation of intense femtosecond laser pulses in an optical medium. Many key phenomena of filamentation were either observed, discovered, explained or confirmed by Prof. Chin and his collaborators. These include plasma generation stopping self-focusing, intensity clamping, background reservoir, the absence of breakdown in gases and self-spatial filtering. They also developed the key concept of slice-by-slice self-focusing. The good qualities of filamentation (self-stabilization, intensity clamping, self-spatial filtering, self-compression, self-group-phase-locking, self-transportation at high intensity to long distances in air, low plasma density, etc.) would have a profound impact on applications some of which were already demonstrated by S.L. Chin and his group; e.g. third harmonic generation, four-wave-mixing THz generation, clean fluorescence and Lasing action. This would become a new front in the field. S.L. Chin calls this ‘filamentation nonlinear optics’.

In the past 12 years, S.L. Chin was invited to present more than 210 talks at national and international conferences as well as in various institutions in many countries and was chairing /co-organizing over 100 national and international conferences.

So far, S.L. Chin has published more 390 journal papers and written 3 monographs. He is a co-editor of the new series of books published by Springer on the interdisciplinary subject of ultrafast intense laser science in its chemical physics series. He also co-edited two other books in laser physics.

S.L. Chin has received many distinctions honors and awards in his career, for example, OSA fellow (1995), Humboldt Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Research Foundation (1999), Canada Research Chair (senior) on Ultrafast Intense Laser Science (2001-2014), Honourary Doctor of Science degree, University of Waterloo (2008), CAP (Canadian Association of Physicists) medal of lifetime achievement in physics (2011) etc.

   Abstract of the Lecture

Femtosecond laser filamentation has opened up many frontiers of science, both pure and applied. It encompasses applications due to both quantum and classical physics. Phenomena such as Intensity clamping, lasing in air and in pollutants, population trapping, molecular alignment, super-excitation of molecules, filament induced snow fall, etc. open up a new stimulating multidisciplinary playground. 

    Intensity clamping is a profound phenomenon which could lead to very stable interaction consequences. Population trapping and molecular alignment, rotation and revival can be applied to remote detection of pulsed THz radiation. Lasing in an air filament seems to rely upon a new scheme of exciting a simple molecule such as N₂and CO₂into a state of population inversion. Lasing (or population inversion) from fragmented pollutant molecules inside an air filament was observed. The characteristic fluorescence from many pollutants, gaseous or solid could be detected remotely using only one laser, at least in principle. Filament induced precipitation inside a cloud chamber becomes a reality. Challenges in the future will be discussed at the end.