摘要
Ever since the invention of laser pulses,^(1–5)one of the key directions for the development of laser technology has been the creation of ever shorter pulses of light.Over the past sixty years,improvements in technology have pushed pulse durations down from nanoseconds through picoseconds to femtoseconds,giving us access to time-resolved studies of molecular nuclear motion and chemical reactions.^(6)Just in time for the 59th birthday of the standard(SI)prefixes“femto”and“atto,”^(7)the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to the latest landmark in this effort:the generation of attosecond pulses of light,^(8–10)which opens a window to the most fundamental timescale of the world around us–the timescale of electrons moving inside atoms,molecules,and condensed matter.
