Attosecond laser, which allows scientists a window to observe the ultrafast particles in the microscopic world, bears major significance for achieving new scientific and technological progress, according to the chief engineer of a just-launched Chinese attosecond laser infrastructure project.
China has launched the construction of the Advanced Attosecond Laser Infrastructure (AALI) on Friday, with facilities to be built in Dongguan in south China's Guangdong Province and Xi'an in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.
The AALI project is planned to set up 10 beamlines covering wavelengths in extreme ultraviolet, soft X-ray and terahertz radiation, along with 22 research terminals, forming a comprehensive attosecond science facility in the next five years.
One attosecond is one-quintillionth of a second, or 0.000000000000000001 seconds. In one second, light can circle the Earth's equator seven and a half times. However, in one attosecond, the distance light travels is only about 0.3nm, physicists explained.
"Try to picture the nucleus inside an atom, and there is an electron circling around it. It takes almost 150 attoseconds for an electron to circle around the nucleus. The attosecond laser is like a high-speed camera for electron movements," Zhao Kun, chief engineer of the AALI,noted.
With attosecond lasers, microscopic processes within matter will no longer need "indirect evidence" to be confirmed, but can be directly observed in a manner much like watching instant slow-motion replay.
"It's like taking a photo of an electron moving in slow motion. With such a photo we will be able to know how electron moves, and how it drives other microprocesses to occur. Thus we may gain a deeper understanding of the nature of these processes. This is of great significance to both scientific research and technological development," Zhao said.
In chemistry, using attosecond lasers to capture the process of chemical reactions will help scientists better understand reaction mechanisms and further improve chemical processes.
Capturing the movement of molecules and atoms with attosecond lasers can reveal their interactions and dynamic processes, aiding in the advancement of material science and biological research.
In the field of biomedicine, the high-resolution imaging technology of attosecond pulses is expected to enhance early diagnosis and treatment of diseases, offering new breakthroughs for research on major medical challenges such as cancer and neurological diseases.
Attosecond laser research of great significance to sci-tech development: chief engineer
