AI Insight
Researchers from Skoltech and the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics have established design principles for plasma targets that allow attosecond-duration laser pulses to pass through while maintaining their ultrashort duration and high intensity. The study provides guidelines for selecting optimal plasma thickness and density to preserve these extremely brief light flashes. This advancement addresses a key technical challenge in generating attosecond pulses, which last only billionths of a billionth of a second.
Why it matters
The findings will enable better design of plasma-based sources that produce ultraviolet and X-ray radiation for studying ultrafast processes in matter, such as electron dynamics in atoms and molecules. This could improve capabilities for observing and understanding fundamental processes that occur on attosecond timescales, advancing fields like materials science and chemical physics.
Understand the Science
Researchers at Skoltech, together with a colleague from the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, working within the joint SIOM–Skoltech laboratory, have determined how to select the thickness and density of a plasma target so that a pulse passing through it retains its attosecond duration and high intensity. The results will help improve the design of plasma-based sources of ultraviolet and X-ray radiation used to study ultrafast processes in matter.
Source: Plasma design rules show how to preserve attosecond flashes for observing electrons