Femtosecond

In the search for more efficient and sustainable energy generation methods, a class of materials called metal halide perovskites have shown great promise. In the few years since their discovery, novel solar cells based on these materials have already achieved efficiencies comparable to commercial silicon solar cells.

Invented by T. Tajima and J. Dawson, laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) harnesses the power of high-intensity laser pulses to drive plasma waves with acceleration gradients orders of magnitude higher than conventional RF-based accelerators.

Ultra-intense ultrashort lasers have a wide-ranging scope of applications, encompassing basic physics, national security, industrial service, and health care. In basic physics, such lasers have become a powerful tool for researching strong-field laser physics, especially for laser-driven radiation sources, laser particle acceleration, vacuum quantum electrodynamics, and more.

A microscopic shock wave has been photographed passing through a single biological cell, thanks to a new photography technique. Nanosecond photography uses ultrafast electronic cameras to take images at the speed of a billionth of a second. However, image quality and exposure time are typically limited.

UT Austin researchers have achieved a "compact breakthrough" for particle accelerators.

From monitoring concentrations of greenhouse gases to detecting COVID in the breath, laser systems known as frequency combs can identify specific molecules as simple as carbon dioxide and as complex as monoclonal antibodies with unprecedented accuracy and sensitivity. Amazing as they are, however, frequency combs have been limited in how fast they can capture a high-speed process such as hypersonic propulsion or…

Semiconductors—most notably, silicon—underpin the computers, cellphones, and other electronic devices that power our daily lives, including the device on which you are reading this article.

When the Earth was completing its formation approximately 4.5 billion years ago, it was enveloped in a global ocean of molten magma, extending hundreds to thousands of kilometers beneath its surface due to violent impacts. This early environment bore little resemblance to the habitable conditions we experience on Earth today.

Deep under Menlo Park, California, is a three-mile-long machine that could transform our understanding of the very mechanisms of life.

Two-photon polymerization is a potential method for nanofabrication to integrate nanomaterials based on femtosecond laser-based methods. Challenges in the field of 3D nanoprinting include slow layer-by-layer printing and limited material options as a result of laser-matter interactions.

Orbitronics is a recently emerging field of research on the manipulation of the orbital degree of freedom of electrons for quantum information technology. However, unambiguously detecting ultrafast dynamics of orbital angular momentum has been challenging so far.

Researchers at Duke University have implemented a quantum-based method to observe a quantum effect in the way light-absorbing molecules interact with incoming photons. Known as a conical intersection, the effect puts limitations on the paths molecules can take to change between different configurations.

Researchers have developed the first fiber laser that can produce femtosecond pulses in the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Fiber lasers producing ultrashort, bright visible-wavelength pulses could be useful for a variety of biomedical applications as well as other areas such as material processing.

Physicists at the University of Konstanz have generated one of the shortest signals ever produced by humans: Using paired laser pulses, they succeeded in compressing a series of electron pulses to a numerically analyzed duration of only 0.000000000000000005 seconds.

Researchers at Tohoku University used a femtosecond laser to successfully micro/nanofabricate graphene films, creating multi-point holes without damage and removing contaminants. The technique could replace traditional, more complex methods, offering potential advancements in quantum materials resea

Proteins are biological molecules that perform almost all biochemical tasks in all forms of life. In doing so, the tiny structures perform ultra-fast movements. In order to investigate these dynamic processes more precisely than before, researchers have developed a new algorithm that can be used to evaluate measurements at X-ray free-electron lasers such as the SwissFEL more efficiently. They have now presented it…

Designing the next generation of efficient energy conversion devices for powering our electronics and heating our homes requires a detailed understanding of how molecules move and vibrate while undergoing light-induced chemical reactions.

The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Central Laser Facility (CLF) is celebrating the publication of the first paper from its newly upgraded Artemis lab space.

Researchers at University of Tokyo, JTS PRESTO, Ludwig Maximilians Universität and Kindai University recently demonstrated the modulation of an electron source by applying laser light to a single fullerene molecule. Their study, featured in Physical Review Letters, could pave the way for the development of better performing computers and microscopic imaging devices.

Researchers have 'hacked' the earliest stages of photosynthesis, the natural machine that powers the vast majority of life on Earth, and discovered new ways to extract energy from the process, a finding that could lead to new ways of generating clean fuel and renewable energy.