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Science 1 June 2001:
Vol. 292. no. 5522, pp. 1627 - 1628
DOI: 10.1126/science.292.5522.1627b
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News of the Week

ULTRAFAST LASERS:
Strobe Light Breaks the Attosecond Barrier

Robert F. Service

On page 1689 of this issue, physicists report creating the fastest strobe light ever made, with individual pulses lasting just 220 attoseconds, or 220 billionths of a billionth of a second. These unimaginably short pulses are the first to be confirmed as breaking the attosecond barrier, a goal of high-speed-laser researchers for nearly a decade. Such pulses may one day serve as an ultrafast camera, allowing researchers to freeze action and perhaps to spot the gyrations of individual electrons whirling around an atomic nucleus.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)