Attosecond Science Applied to Atoms and Molecules

每个人都看过飞行中的蜂鸟或子弹穿过苹果的高速照片。今天，激光是如此之快，以至于它们可以冻结原子的运动，让我们看到分子的内部。在过去的十年里，出现了一个新的领域，叫做阿秒科学。阿秒科学依赖于一种新型的激光源，在这种激光源中，单个原子发射出极紫外辐射，并具有激光的所有特征——相干性、准直性和亮度。阿秒科学彻底改变了高速摄影的概念，因为它现在允许我们跟踪原子和分子内单个电子的运动。与此同时，阿秒科学的基础技术使我们能够在极短的时间尺度和量子水平上对物质的结构和动力学进行新的探测。

Everyone has seen high speed photographs of a hummingbird in flight or of a bullet passing through an apple. Today, lasers are so fast that they can freeze the motion of atoms and allow us to see inside molecules. In the past 10 years, a new field has emerged, called attosecond science. Attosecond science relies on a new type of laser source in which individual atoms emit bursts of extreme ultraviolet radiation and have all the characteristics of a laser - coherence, collimation and brightness. Attosecond science has revolutionized the concept of high speed photography, as it now permits us to follow the motion of individual electrons within atoms and molecules. At the same time, the technology underlying attosecond science allows us to create new probes of the structure and dynamics of matter on an extremely brief time scale and at the quantum level.