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Physicists from the University of Konstanz have generated one of the shortest signals ever produced by humans.
Molecular or solid-state processes in nature can sometimes take place in time frames as brief as femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second) or attoseconds (quintillionths of a second). Nuclear reactions are even faster. Now, Maxim Tsarev, Johannes Thurner, and Peter Baum, scientists from the University of Konstanz, are using a new experimental set-up to achieve signals of attosecond duration, i.e. the billionths of a nanosecond, which opens up new perspectives in the field of ultrafast phenomena.
Not even light waves can achieve such a time resolution because a single oscillation takes much too long for that. Electrons provide a remedy here, as they enable significantly higher time resolution. In their experimental set-up, the Konstanz researchers use pairs of femtosecond light flashes from a laser to generate their extremely short electron pulses in a free-space beam. The results are reported in the journal Nature Physics.
How did the scientists go about it?
Similar to water waves, light waves can also superimpose to create standing or traveling wave crests and troughs. The physicists chose the incidence angles and frequencies so that the co-propagating electrons, which fly through a vacuum at half the speed of light, overlap with optical wave crests and troughs of exactly the same speed.
Molecular or solid-state processes in nature can sometimes take place in time frames as brief as femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second) or attoseconds (quintillionths of a second). Nuclear reactions are even faster. Now, Maxim Tsarev, Johannes Thurner, and Peter Baum, scientists from the University of Konstanz, are using a new experimental set-up to achieve signals of attosecond duration, i.e. the billionths of a nanosecond, which opens up new perspectives in the field of ultrafast phenomena.
Not even light waves can achieve such a time resolution because a single oscillation takes much too long for that. Electrons provide a remedy here, as they enable significantly higher time resolution. In their experimental set-up, the Konstanz researchers use pairs of femtosecond light flashes from a laser to generate their extremely short electron pulses in a free-space beam. The results are reported in the journal Nature Physics.
How did the scientists go about it?
Similar to water waves, light waves can also superimpose to create standing or traveling wave crests and troughs. The physicists chose the incidence angles and frequencies so that the co-propagating electrons, which fly through a vacuum at half the speed of light, overlap with optical wave crests and troughs of exactly the same speed.
0.000000000000000005 Seconds – Physicists Generate One of the Shortest Signals Ever Produced by Humans
Physicists from the University of Konstanz have generated one of the shortest signals ever produced by humans. Molecular or solid-state processes in nature can sometimes take place in time frames as brief as femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second) or attoseconds (quintillionths of a second). Nucl
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