Attosecond

Movements at the particle scale happen extremely quickly, which makes it hard to see what’s going on in there. Now engineers have developed an “attoclock” that can take snapshots of electrons in increments as small as quintillionths of a second.

To better understand molecular events, scientists use short-pulse X-ray lasers to take precise snapshots. Now, researchers at ETH Zurich have managed to shorten the pulse of an X-ray laser down to 43 attoseconds – which the team says is the shortest controlled event ever created by humankind.

The world's shortest laser pulse, measuring only 67 attoseconds in duration, has been generated at the University of Central Florida.

March 15, 2007 Physicists at the University of Bath will soon begin a research project which could be an important step towards the development of photonic c