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What will it take to observe processes in 'real time'?

Nature Photonics volume 8, pages 162–166 (2014)Cite this article

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Even for simple systems, the interpretations of new attosecond measurements are complicated and provide only a glimpse of their potential. Nonetheless, the lasting impact will be the revelation of how short-time dynamics can determine the electronic properties of more complex systems.

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Figure 1: Streak field measurements of surface photoelectron ejection.
Figure 2: Charge migration in molecules.
Figure 3: Transient absorption measurements on He, taking advantage of the polarization of the medium.

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Acknowledgements

This Commentary evolved from the presentations and discussions at the workshop “Unraveling the Interpretations of Attosecond Measurements” held in March 2013 in Washington, DC, sponsored by the Council on Chemical and Biochemical Sciences of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences. The authors are grateful to the members of the Council for their encouragement and assistance in developing this workshop. In addition, the authors acknowledge the agencies that provided funding for individual research programs in attosecond and related science, without which this workshop and Commentary would not have been possible.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Chemistry and Physics, University of California, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Stephen R. Leone & Adrian N. Pfeiffer

  2. Chemical Sciences Division, Ultrafast X-Ray Science Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Stephen R. Leone, C. William McCurdy & Adrian N. Pfeiffer

  3. Department of Chemistry, University of California, Davis, 95616, California, USA

    C. William McCurdy

  4. Institute for Theoretical Physics, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, 1040, Austria

    Joachim Burgdörfer

  5. Theoretische Chemie, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität, Heidelberg, D69120, Germany

    Lorenz S. Cederbaum

  6. CREOL and Department of Physics, University of Central Florida, Orlando, 32816, Florida, USA

    Zenghu Chang

  7. Department of Physics and Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel

    Nirit Dudovich

  8. Departamento de Física Teórica de la Materia Condensada, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, E-28049, Spain

    Johannes Feist

  9. Department of Physics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, 47907, Indiana, USA

    Chris H. Greene

  10. Max Born Institute, Max Born Strasse 2A, Berlin Adlershof, 12489, Berlin, Germany

    Misha Ivanov & Marc J. J. Vrakking

  11. Department of Physics, Humboldt University, Newtonstrasse 15, Berlin, 12489, Germany

    Misha Ivanov

  12. Department of Physics, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ, UK

    Misha Ivanov

  13. Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Strasse 1, Garching, 85748, Germany

    Reinhard Kienberger & Matthias F. Kling

  14. Department of Physics, Technische Universität München, James Franck Strasse, Garching, 85748, Germany

    Reinhard Kienberger

  15. Physics Department, ETH Zurich, Zurich, 8093, Switzerland

    Ursula Keller

  16. Physics Department, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Am Coulombwall 1, Garching, 85748, Germany

    Matthias F. Kling

  17. Division of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry and Division of Physics and Applied Physics, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, S637371, Singapore

    Zhi-Heng Loh

  18. Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg, 69117, Germany

    Thomas Pfeifer

  19. Center for Quantum Dynamics, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität, Heidelberg, Heidelberg, 69120, Germany

    Thomas Pfeifer

  20. Institute for Optics and Quantum Electronics, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Max-Wien-Platz, Jena, 1,07743, Germany

    Adrian N. Pfeiffer

  21. Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Notkestrasse 85, Hamburg, D-22607, Germany

    Robin Santra

  22. Department of Physics, University of Hamburg, Jungiusstrasse 9, Hamburg, D-20355, Germany

    Robin Santra

  23. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, 70803, Louisiana, USA

    Kenneth Schafer

  24. Department of Physics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, K1N 6N5, Ontario, Canada

    Albert Stolow

  25. Departments of Chemistry and Physics, Queen's University, Kingston, K7L 3N6, Ontario, Canada

    Albert Stolow

  26. Emerging Technologies Division, SDT, National Research Council of Canada, 100 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, K1A OR6, Ontario, Canada

    Albert Stolow

  27. Department of Physics, J. R. Macdonald Laboratory, Kansas State University, Manhattan, 66506, Kansas, USA

    Uwe Thumm

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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stephen R. Leone.

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Leone, S., McCurdy, C., Burgdörfer, J. et al. What will it take to observe processes in 'real time'?. Nature Photon 8, 162–166 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2014.48

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