Molecules in motion: How ultrashort light pulses make the ultrafast movie
<p>A few weeks ago, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Anne L’Huillier, Ferenc Krausz and Pierre Agostini “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter”.</p>
<p>An attosecond is just one <em>quintillionth</em> of a second. The fastest time scale that humans can reliably detect is about 30 to 60 frames per second. As illustrated in the following diagram, the time scale of ultrafast imaging is several orders of magnitude shorter. Biological processes such as protein folding take microseconds to complete, chemical bonds form and break in femtoseconds, and electrons move in attoseconds.</p>
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