External links
- Petek Research Lab – Official website
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Hrvoje Petek | |
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| Born | January 13, 1958 Zagreb, Croatia |
| Nationality | American, Croatian |
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1980, B.S., Chemistry) University of California, Berkeley (1985, Ph.D., Chemistry) |
| Known for | Ultrafast laser spectroscopy, Ultrafast microscopy, Plasmonics, Two-photon photoelectron spectroscopy |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Experimental physics |
| Institutions | Institute for Molecular Science Hitachi University of Pittsburgh |
Hrvoje Petek (born January 13, 1958) is a Croatian-born American physicist and the Richard King Mellon Professor of Physics and Astronomy, [1] at the University of Pittsburgh. [2]
Petek received his B.S. degree in chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980. Subsequently, he obtained his Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1985. [3] As a National Science Foundation pre-doctoral fellow, he developed a high-frequency and time resolution transient absorption instrument for spectroscopic and dynamical studies of small reactive gas phase molecules; his thesis on "Vibrational and electronic spectroscopy of singlet methylene" was awarded the best Ph.D. thesis in the Berkeley Chemistry Department in 1985.
As a Group Leader at the Hitachi Advanced Research Laboratory, and at the University of Pittsburgh, Petek has developed coherent photoelectron spectroscopy [4] [5] and microscopy [6] as methods for studying the electronic dephasing and spatial propagation of polarization fields in solid state materials and nanostructure. He uses intense femtosecond laser pulses to perform nonlinear multiphoton photoemission spectroscopy, as a form of Floquet engineering. [7]
Petek’s research has been performed on metal oxide and metal surfaces. Metal oxides are of interest in photocatalysis involving electron charge and energy transfer to molecules [8] [9] or particle plasmon generated hot electrons [10] . Metals dominantly respond coherently to light, as one can see in a mirror, with responses ranging from collective plasmons [11] to hot electrons. This research has had strong contributions from theorists [12] at the Institute of Physics in Zagreb, Croatia.
Petek’s research has extended to dressing of electronic structures of solids by applied electric fields [13] . He has combined the time structure of femtosecond laser pulses with high spatial resolution of electron microscopy to develop interferometric time-resolved photoemission electron microscopy. This has enabled recording of movies, with ~50 attosecond per frame advance, of light propagating at the speed of light [14] [15] as surface plasmon polaritons. Further, by imaging of light structured by spin-orbit interaction he found that plasmonic vortices that form host new type of topological quasiparticles, plasmonic merons [16] and skyrmions [17] , and their arrays [18] . Remarkably, he discovered that plasmonic vortices are uniquely the focus of coherent E∙B field interactions [19] .
In addition, Petek engaged in scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, where his focus has been on the spatial structure of electronic states. Together with Taketoshi Minato, Maki Kawai, Jin Zhao, Jinlong Yang and Jianguo Hou, Petek explained the delocalized electronic structure created by the remaining charge at an oxygen vacancy on titanium dioxide surface. [20] Furthermore, with Min Feng [21] , and Jin Zhao, Petek discovered atom-like superatom states of C60, and similar hollow molecules. [22] With Shijing Tan, they demonstrated that such subnanometer molecular voids support delocalized quantum states that enable coherent electron transfer through molecular materials. [23]
In addition to his academic research, Petek has been editor-in-chief of Progress in Surface Science (2006-2025) [24] , he is a member of the international advisory committee of the International Symposium on Ultrafast Surface Science and co-organizer of the International Symposium on Ultrafast Phenomena and Light-Matter Interaction in Quantum Materials, Zadar, Croatia. Petek has had advisory roles at the National Institute for Materials Science (2015-2019), Institute for Molecular Science, and Japan Atomic Agency (2023-present). Most recently, he is engaged as a Fulbright Specialist at the Institute of Physics.
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