What really happens at femtosecond junctions?

When beams of ultra-short laser pulses running in the same direction intersect with each other at a noticeable angle, various interactions occur between the pulses. These physical phenomena are complicated, and their mathematical ...

Ultra-short laser pulses control chemical processes

Specially shaped laser pulses can be used to change the state of electrons in a molecule. This process only takes several attoseconds—but it can initiate another, much slower process: The splitting of the molecule into ...

Directivity to improve optical devices

A team of researchers from the Dutch institute AMOLF, Western University (Canada), and the University of Texas (United States of America) recently demonstrated the use of algorithmic design to create a new type of nanophotonic ...

Light controls matter, matter controls x-rays

Like playing a game of scissors-paper-rock, a team of scientists led by Thornton E. (Ernie) Glover of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Advanced Light Source (ALS), Linda Young of Argonne National Laboratory, and Ali ...

New X-ray tool proves timing is everything

(Phys.org)—With SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source X-ray laser, timing is everything. Its pulses are designed to explore atomic-scale processes that are measured in femtoseconds, or quadrillionths of a second. Determining ...

page 3 from 7