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Attosecond physics

An easier route to high harmony

Nature volume 453, pages 731–733 (2008)Cite this article

The generation of ultrashort light pulses by atomic ionization and recombination doesn't come cheap. But by niftily exploiting the play of light on a nanostructured surface, it can be done on a table-top.

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation has great potential to be extreme not just in name, but in usefulness. It is the band of ultraviolet light with the shortest wavelength — around 5–50 nanometres, between 100 and 10 times shorter than that of visible light. In applications such as microscopy and lithography it can thus be used to probe and etch at tiny scales. What's more, this wavelength regime is that of many atomic resonances, making EUV light ideally suited for spectroscopic applications. On page 757 of this issue1, Kim et al. detail a deft new way to produce EUV radiation — one that could be considerably more economical that previous approaches.

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Figure 1: Stripping on the table-top.

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  1. Mark I. Stockman is in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Georgia State University, University Plaza, Atlanta, Georgia 30303-3083, USA. mstockman@mail.phy-astr.gsu.edu,

    Mark I. Stockman

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  1. Mark I. Stockman
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Stockman, M. An easier route to high harmony. Nature 453, 731–733 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/453731a

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