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Friday, October 16, 2009

Yoctosecond light pulses, and how to create them

The creation of attosecond-scale light pulses (an attosecond is 10-18 s, or a quintillionth of a second, in duration) is an astounding feat, and opens up whole new areas in advanced spectroscopy. But what if we could jump from atto, right past zepto, all the way to yocto?

Yoctosecond (10-24 s, or a septillionth of a second) scale pulses would enable the light-based investigation of structures the size of atomic nuclei. But, spatially, a light pulse a few yoctoseconds in duration is only as long as an atomic nucleus is wide, so how could such a pulse be produced?

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