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Dec 1, 2022

Femtosecond to attosecond light pulses from a molecular modulator

Posted by in category: chemistry

Year 2011 face_with_colon_three


Ultrafast science has begun to tackle the measurement of electronic and chemical processes taking place on the few-femtosecond-to-attosecond timescale. This field requires high-power, extremely short-duration laser pulses. Here we review progress towards the generation of such pulses by Raman scattering in a medium whose component molecules oscillate in phase, which modulates the optical polarizability of the medium and generates high-order Raman sidebands on a field propagating through it. This process may occur with high efficiency and thus lead to sufficient bandwidth for supporting few-femtosecond to attosecond pulses. Significant progress has recently been made in the use of this technique to deliver useable ultrashort pulses in the visible to ultraviolet regions of the spectrum.

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