Generation and applications of attosecond pulses

The generation of ever shorter pulses is a key to exploring the dynamic behavior of matter on ever shorter time scales. Over the past decade novel ultrafast optical technologies have pushed the duration of laser pulses close to its natural limit, to the wave cycle, which lasts about one femtosecond (1 fs=10^-15 s) in the visible spectral range. Time-resolved measurements with these pulses are able to trace atomic motion in molecules and related chemical processes. However, electronic dynamics inside atoms often evolve on an attosecond (1 as=10 ^-18 s) timescale and require sub-femtosecond pulses for capturing them. This talk will review the recent generation, measurement and first applications of sub-femtosecond soft-X-ray pulses (near 100 eV)