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Electron Motion Filmed

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An electron's rapid motion has been filmed for the first time, with attosecond laser pulses showing how an electron rides a light wave after being separated from an atom.

Until now it has been impossible to photograph electrons, since their extremely high velocities result in blurry pictures. The movie of electron motion was created by scientists at Lund University in Sweden. Their method involved using a stroboscope and a laser that generates the extremely short light pulses needed to capture the movement of an electron once it is pulled away from an atom.

“It takes about 150 attoseconds for an electron to circle the nucleus of an atom. An attosecond is 10-18 seconds long, or, expressed in another way, an attosecond is related to a second as a second is related to the age of the universe,” said Johan Mauritsson, an assistant atomic physics professor in the Faculty of Engineering at Lund University. He and professor Anne L'Huillier lead the seven-member research team that developed the technology.

While it has been possible to create attosecond pulses for the past several years, it is only recently that researchers have been able to successfully use them to film electron movements, since the attosecond pulses by themselves are too weak to take clear pictures. Scientists have previously relied on indirect methods to study electron movement, such as by metering their spectrum, which only measures the result of the movement. Now researchers can observe the entire event.

In addition to the attosecond laser pulse that helped capture the image, the researchers used a second laser to successfully guide the motion of the electron so they could capture the collision of an electron and an atom on film.

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“We have long been promising the research community that we will be able to use attosecond pulses to film electron motion. Now that we have succeeded, we can study how electrons behave when they collide with various objects, for example. The images can function as corroboration of our theories,” Mauritsson said.

They also hope to reveal more about what happens inside an atom when a single electron leaves -- how and when the other electrons fill in the resulting gap.

“What we are doing is pure basic research. If there happen to be future applications, they will have to be seen as a bonus,” Mauritsson said.

The length of the film corresponds to a single oscillation of the light, but the speed was slowed down considerably for the event to be seen by the human eye. The filmed sequence shows the energy distribution of the electron (See the movie here).

“By taking several pictures of exactly the same moment in the process, it’s possible to create stronger, but still sharp, images. A precondition is for the process to be repeated in an identical manner, which is the case regarding the movement of an electron in a ray of light. We started with a so-called stroboscope. A stroboscope enables us to ‘freeze’ a periodic movement, like capturing a hummingbird flapping its wings. You then take several pictures when the wings are in the same position, such as at the top, and the picture will turn out clear, despite the rapid motion,” Mauritsson said.

The research appears in Physical Review Letters.

For more information, visit: www.atto.fysik.lth.se/

Published: February 2008
Glossary
electron
A charged elementary particle of an atom; the term is most commonly used in reference to the negatively charged particle called a negatron. Its mass at rest is me = 9.109558 x 10-31 kg, its charge is 1.6021917 x 10-19 C, and its spin quantum number is 1/2. Its positive counterpart is called a positron, and possesses the same characteristics, except for the reversal of the charge.
image
In optics, an image is the reconstruction of light rays from a source or object when light from that source or object is passed through a system of optics and onto an image forming plane. Light rays passing through an optical system tend to either converge (real image) or diverge (virtual image) to a plane (also called the image plane) in which a visual reproduction of the object is formed. This reconstructed pictorial representation of the object is called an image.
light
Electromagnetic radiation detectable by the eye, ranging in wavelength from about 400 to 750 nm. In photonic applications light can be considered to cover the nonvisible portion of the spectrum which includes the ultraviolet and the infrared.
nano
An SI prefix meaning one billionth (10-9). Nano can also be used to indicate the study of atoms, molecules and other structures and particles on the nanometer scale. Nano-optics (also referred to as nanophotonics), for example, is the study of how light and light-matter interactions behave on the nanometer scale. See nanophotonics.
photonics
The technology of generating and harnessing light and other forms of radiant energy whose quantum unit is the photon. The science includes light emission, transmission, deflection, amplification and detection by optical components and instruments, lasers and other light sources, fiber optics, electro-optical instrumentation, related hardware and electronics, and sophisticated systems. The range of applications of photonics extends from energy generation to detection to communications and...
ray
A geometric representation of a light path through an optical device; a line normal to the wavefront indicating the direction of radiant energy flow.
stroboscope
A device that produces brief flashes of light for observing the behavior of an object during a short interval. One of the most effective means for accomplishing this is a gaseous tube energized by the discharge of an electrical condenser. Flashes as short as one microsecond have been produced in this fashion.
Anne LHuillieratomatomicattosecondBasic Scienceelectronelectron motionfilmimageJohan MauritssonlightmotionnanoNews & FeaturesnucleusoscillationphotographphotonicspicturespulserayStroboscopevelocitiesLasers

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