Feature
Sources and Science of Attosecond Light
Existing techniques and cutting-edge light sources are opening up the attosecond realm—and illuminating the world of electron motion.
Artistic representation of a coherent (laser-like) X-ray pulse. [Tenio Popmintchev, JILA, University of Colorado at Boulder]
An attosecond (from the Danish word for “eighteen”) marks an interval of 10–18 seconds. The timescale between 1 and 1,000 attoseconds (10–18 to 10–15 seconds), seemingly inconceivable on the level of ordinary experience, is highly significant in molecular physics and chemistry, because this is the timescale on which electrons move.
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