Attosecond Energy: A New Technology
Individual energy processes occur over very small periods of time. Chemical reactions, electron dynamics, even vision: these processes happen over infinitesimally small periods of time called attoseconds. One attosecond is a billionth of a billionth of a second; in other words, there are as many attoseconds in one second as there have been seconds in the history of the universe. Scientists have never been able to study these energy processes in the attosecond time frame, that is, until the work of Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L’Huillier. In a breakthrough development, they developed an ultrafast laser pulse that generates attosecond light pulses to study electron interactions in matter. For their work, they were awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics.
From left to right: Agostini, L’Huillier, Krausz (BBC)
Previously, scientists were only able to study ultra-fast processes in the femtosecond time frame. However, L’Huillier and her team achieved a breakthrough when they used refined high-harmonic generation (HHG) technology, firing an infrared laser through argon. With further work, they developed their attosecond source by measuring the pulse timings (using Agostini’s RABBIT technology to combine the electric field of an optical laser with attosecond pulses) and generating an isolated pulse (Krausz’s attosecond streaking for single pulses). Now able to generate and measure attosecond pulses on such a small scale, scientists throughout the field are excited to explore electron dynamics and their implementations in much greater detail.
Diagram of the setup (TheScientist)
One exciting implementation of attosecond technology in electron dynamics is its relevance to light energy. The conversion of photons into electrons for use in solar energy is an ultra-fast process that occurs in attoseconds. Using attosecond technology to picture these photoelectric processes and study them in more depth could shed valuable insight into scientists’ understanding of these processes, such as the motion of electrons. Indeed, implementations of attosecond technology is already being investigated in semiconductor materials, which are a key component in solar panels. According to a seminar by Stephen R. Leone of University of California and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, current materials research involves the use of attosecond X-ray measurements to explore the response of semiconductors to the excitation of carriers, with the goal of understanding new electronic time scales and processes. Ultimately, the introduction of attosecond technology is certainly a breakthrough in the field, and its implications for renewable energy technologies and processes are exciting to behold.
