BBC:
A team of researchers at the University of Central Florida led
by Zenghu Chang has created a laser with a pulse duration of
only 67 attoseconds (10
−18 s). Pulsed femtosecond lasers are widely
used research tools for studying molecular dynamics. Even
faster lasers can be used to look at events that occur at
atomic and subatomic scales. In general, ultrafast pulses are
primarily obtained by firing the lasers into focused streams of
inert gases, which compresses the pulses in time. Chang's group
refined this process by also passing the laser pulses through a
thin zinc foil. That additional step slows some wavelengths
down, compressing the duration of the pulse even further.
