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Published Online February 15, 2001
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1058561

Research Articles

Submitted on December 22, 2000
Accepted on January 2, 2001

X-ray Pulses Approaching the Attosecond Frontier

Markus Drescher 1, Michael Hentschel 2, Reinhard Kienberger 2, Gabriel Tempea 2, Christian Spielmann 2, Georg A. Reider 2, Paul B. Corkum 3, Ferenc Krausz 2*

1 Institut für Photonik, Technische Universität Wien, Gusshausstr. 27, A-1040 Wien, Austria; Fakultät für Physik, Universität Bielefeld, D-33615 Bielefeld, Germany.
2 Institut für Photonik, Technische Universität Wien, Gusshausstr. 27, A-1040 Wien, Austria.
3 National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1 A 0R6.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ferenc.krausz{at}tuwien.ac.at.

Single soft-X-ray pulses of {approx} 90-eV photon energy are produced by high-order harmonic generation with 7-femtosecond (fs), 770-nm (1.6 eV) laser pulses and characterized by photoionizing krypton in the presence of the driver laser pulse. By detecting photoelectrons ejected perpendicularly to the laser polarization, broadening of the photoelectron spectrum due to absorption and emission of laser photons is suppressed permitting the observation of a laser-induced downshift of the energy spectrum with sub-laser-cycle resolution in a cross correlation measurement. We measure isolated X-ray pulses of {tau}x = 1.8 ( +0.7/ -1.2) fs in duration, which are shorter than the oscillation cycle of the driving laser light (T0 {approx} 2.6 fs). Our techniques for generation and measurement offer sub-femtosecond resolution over a wide range of X-ray wavelengths, paving the way to experimental attosecond science (1 attosecond = 10?3 fs = 10-18 sec). Tracing atomic processes evolving faster than the (exciting) light field is within reach.


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