Attosecond science and technology

An intense light pulse can extract an electron wave packet from an atom near a field crest. This wave packet responds to the field, gaining and losing momentum as the field oscillates. During the process portions of the wave packet are inevitably driven back to the ion, and recombining with substantial momentum and thereby transferring the wave packet characteristics into a broad bandwidth burst of radiation that can extend continuously from the ultraviolet to the soft X-rays. Many characteristics of attosecond pulse are imposed by the time-dependent-field of a light pulse. By controlling the time-dependent-field, we control attosecond pulse generation.