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Kurihara Lab
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The lab uses lasers that flash for only an instant to observe motion inside solids.
AboutAbout the lab
Peering inside solids with a flash of light
The Kurihara Lab conducts experimental research on optical properties, using light to investigate the properties of materials.
The lab uses femtosecond lasers, which emit intense light for only an instant, like a strobe shutter.
In this way, it makes the motion of elementary excitations in solids, such as magnons, phonons, excitons, and plasmons, visible in the time domain.
Drawing on laser and light-source technologies, the lab devises its own measurement methods and aims to carry out solid-state physics experiments that no other lab can do.
Key terms
- Elementary excitation
- A wave or vibration that behaves like a single particle when many particles in a solid move together
- Femtosecond
- One quadrillionth of a second (10^-15 s). It is such a short time that even light travels a distance much shorter than the width of a human hair
- Terahertz wave
- An electromagnetic wave with a frequency between radio waves and light. It resonates with slow vibrations inside materials
NewsLab news
Associate Professor Kurihara received the AAPPS-JPS Award
Associate Professor Kurihara received the Kondo Prize
Kurihara Lab was established
ResearchResearch themes
Using femtosecond lasers, the lab investigates in the time domain how elementary excitations move inside solids. Its work covers observing ultrafast fluctuations, developing ultrashort-pulse laser sources, and controlling spin systems with terahertz waves.
*Illustrative imageObserving ultrafast fluctuations
The lab was among the first in the world to propose and demonstrate a technique for experimentally observing the random motion of fluctuating spins (spin noise) on a picosecond timescale. By statistically analyzing the noise in the polarization of femtosecond pulses after they interact with a magnetic material, it measures the motion of thermal fluctuations.
*Illustrative imageDeveloping ultrashort-pulse laser sources
For nonlinear optics experiments, the lab has developed femtosecond laser sources with a fixed phase and a pulse width of only a few cycles. In the mid-infrared range, it has achieved pulses compressed to about two cycles.
*Illustrative imageControlling spins with terahertz waves
Using high-intensity terahertz waves and plasmonics technology, the lab has studied the nonlinear dynamics of strongly excited spin systems. Its main target is orthoferrite, an antiferromagnet.
MembersFaculty
The Kurihara Lab consists of faculty members and master's students.As of 2026
- Associate ProfessorTakayuki KuriharaPublications ↗
- Assistant ProfessorTsubasa Takagi
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Femtosecond Laser and Pulse Compressor - Optics Lab - INRIM” Giorgio Brida from Torino, Italy / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Observing ultrafast fluctuations: “Polar Kerr effect (MOKE)” Pieter Kuiper / Public domain (cropped)
- Developing ultrashort-pulse laser sources: “Ti Sapph YAG supercontinnum” Neath g / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Controlling spins with terahertz waves: “Terahertz freq. metamaterial modulator” Hou-Tong Chen (Los Alamos National Laboratory) / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (加藤雄介研究室): “Liquid helium Rollin film” I, AlfredLeitner, took this photograph as part of my movie "Liquid Helium,Superfluid" / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (塩見(雄毅)研究室): “Magnetite-118736” Robert M. Lavinsky / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (堀田(知佐)研究室): “Магнитная доменная структура в пленке феррита-граната” Temiryazev / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (長谷川
(宗良)研究室): “Dye laser SF-07” Sergey100 / Public domain (cropped)
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