Light Pulse Speed Record Set
GARCHING, Germany, July 2, 2008 -- Researchers have set a new record in ultrafast metrology, producing the first light pulses lasting only 80 attoseconds (a billionth of a billionth of a second).
Electrons move at awesome speeds, so any observation of that motion has to also be extremely fast. In just a few attoseconds, the particles in atoms jump between adjacent atoms in a molecule or solid from one place to another. When electrons jump, light is emitted in the visible, ultraviolet or x-ray spectrum; the jumps also can...