University of Central Florida Professor Zenghu Chang broke the record for the fastest light pulse. Credit: University of Central Florida
The 53-attosecond light pulse breaks the record set by the same team in 2012. The group led by Professor Zenghu Chang beat its own record set in 2012: a 67-attosecond extreme UV light pulse. In 53 attoseconds, light travels < 1/1000 of the diameter of a human hair. Attosecond light pulses allow scientists to capture images of fast-moving electrons in atoms and molecules with unprecedented sharpness.
As reported Aug. 4 in Nature Communications, the pulses Chang has now demonstrated are not just shorter in duration, but also in wavelength. The new light reaches an important spectral region, the so called “water window,” where carbon atoms absorb strongly but water does not. “Such attosecond soft X-rays could be used to shoot slow-motion video of electrons and atoms of biological molecules in living cells to, for instance, improve the efficiency of solar panels by better understanding how photosynthesis works,” said Chang, a UCF Trustee Chair Professor in CREOL, The College of Optics & Photonics, and the Department of Physics.
X-rays interact with the tightly bound electrons in matter and may reveal which electrons move in which atoms, providing another way to study fast processes in materials with chemical element specificity. That capability is invaluable for the development of next-generation logic and memory chips for mobile phones and computers that are a thousand times faster than those in use today.
Producing attosecond X-rays requires a new type of high power driver: femtosecond lasers with a long wavelength. It’s an approach that Chang and his team have pioneered.
https://today.ucf.edu/ucf-researchers-set-record-fastest-light-pulse/
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