Physicists at LMU Munich and the Max-Planck-Institute of
Quantum Optics measure the duration of energetic electron pulses using laser
fields.
A stopwatch made of light can determine the duration of
extremely brief electron flashes. Teams based in the Laboratory for Attosecond
Physics (LAP) at LMU and at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics have,
for the first time, succeeded in measuring the lengths of ultrashort bursts of
highly energetic electrons using the electric fields of laser light. Such
electron pulses, which behave like ultrashort matter waves, provide
time-resolved recordings of processes taking place in molecules and atoms,
enabling elementary particles to be "filmed" in four dimensions. The
new stopwatch for electrons now permits even more precise investigations of the
motions of electrons and atoms on nature’s smallest scales.