THD01
Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
In Bohr’s model of the hydrogen atom, the ground-state electron completes one cycle of revolution in 150 attoseconds. Some other processes in atoms and molecules can be even faster. Femtosecond and attosecond pulses of light can provide the resolution needed for studying and ultimately controlling the dynamics of electrons in solids, molecules and atoms. Therefore, there is a strong scientific demand for the development of sources of high-energy, ultrashort, coherent, X-ray pulses. In this talk, we (i) review the characteristic time and length scales in atoms, molecules and nanostructures, (ii) outline the progress on short-pulse generation over time and the state-of-the-art of production of high-energy, ultrashort pulses; (iii) examine the demonstrated and proposed schemes of the generation of femtosecond and sub-femtosecond pulses with FELs, (iv) discuss recent concepts [1] for the production of 100-attosecond pulses.
[1] A. Mak et al., "Attosecond single-cycle undulator light: a review," Reports on Progress in Physics, Vol. 82, 02590 (2019).
