IT IS the atomic equivalent of the blink of an eye. European scientists have measured the shortest interval of time yet – 100 attoseconds. The technique could be used to create “movies” of the way electrons move inside atoms.
The team used a short pulse of extreme ultraviolet light to create an initial image of an electron, followed 100 attoseconds (or 100 × 10−18 seconds) later by a visible laser pulse. Comparing the two images showed how the electron had moved in that time (Nature, vol 26, p 817). Femtosecond (10−15 second) intervals are routinely measured, but electrons…
