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Right, now, on to attoscience (which combines #quantum #physics with #ultrashort #lasers).
First, I dusted off an overview slide of my thesis presentation. Attoscience studies electron motion in bound states, ionization processes, charge transfer, and similar.
First, I dusted off an overview slide of my thesis presentation. Attoscience studies electron motion in bound states, ionization processes, charge transfer, and similar.
All of this happens on the time scale of attoseconds, 10⁻¹⁸ seconds (and sometimes femtoseconds = 10⁻¹⁵ s), which is almost unimaginably fast. In the short intro podcast with @the_ScienceTalk, I explained the comparison with the age of our universe.
To measure such fast dynamics we need an equally as fast tool, which is laser pulses of a few femtosecond duration or shorter. Because a lot of energy is compressed in a very short time, the peak power of these pulses can reach terawatts (similar to nuclear power plants). 😲☢️
