Max‑Born Institute demonstrates attosecond imaging of electron motion

Researchers at the Max‑Born Institute have created a laboratory‑based technique that uses attosecond light pulses both to excite and to probe electronic dynamics. The method, called all‑attosecond transient‑absorption spectroscopy, allowed the team to resolve the oscillating motion of an electron hole in xenon ions (Xe⁺) with a period of about three femtoseconds.

The experiment employed XUV attosecond pulses of roughly 270 attoseconds generated by a high‑harmonic source, with both pump and probe pulses in the extreme ultraviolet range, reducing perturbations to the system. Results were published in Nature Communications, highlighting a new, less‑distorted view of ultrafast electronic processes that underlie many light‑induced phenomena such as chemical reactions and charge transport in solids.