“In condensed phase media — which comprise the basic pillar of modern fundamental and practical photonic applications — things are much more challenging”, says Goulielmakis, leader of the research group. Solids cannot stand intense lasers without being damaged, and even worse, the fast vibrating atoms inside a solid randomly collide with the laser-driven electrons preventing the generation of coherent, laser-like radiation. By using extremely fast laser pulses (typically less than 2 femtoseconds) — so fast as to comprise only a single oscillation of a light wave generated by a “so-called” light field synthesizer — the MPQ scientists succeeded to sidestep these challenges. “Matter can stand intense field when illuminated for a very short time to produce extreme ultraviolet, and atoms merely move within this short time scale”, says Tran Trung Luu, scientist in the team.

MPQ scientists succeeded to sidestep these challenges........

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