Max Born Institute researchers develop method to observe electron movement

Researchers at the Max Born Institute have developed a laboratory-based method to observe electronic movements using attosecond pulses for both excitation and observation. This technique, known as all-attosecond transient absorption spectroscopy, allows for the resolution of the oscillating movement of an electron hole in xenon ions with a period of approximately three femtoseconds.

Electronic movements are fundamental to the earliest stages of light-induced processes, ranging from chemical reactions to charge transport in solids. Because these processes occur extremely rapidly, they require light flashes lasting only a few hundred attoseconds to be observed. Unlike previous experiments that combined extreme ultraviolet pulses with intense near-infrared pulses—which could influence the system's intrinsic behavior—this new method utilizes attosecond pulses to minimize such interference. The findings have been published in Nature Communications.