Attosecond lasers, which won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausch and Anne L’Huillier, leading employees of the Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, can be used in physics, biology and electronics. Sciences (Nizhny Novgorod) told socialbites.ca Mikhail Ryabikin.
Russian scientific groups are also working on aterosecond pulses; one of them works at the Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
“We have studied different options for obtaining attosecond pulses: how to achieve them with higher efficiency, intensity, with a specific electric field profile and polarization. We are learning how to control the properties of these flashes of light and how to use them. For example, there are light-triggered photocells, followed by photoionization , a free electron and current emerge. No one knew how fast these photocells worked, how fast this photocurrent appeared. These pulses will make it possible to record with an accuracy of 20 attoseconds how long it takes for an electron to leave the atom and escape. Now this is the photoelectric effect we can measure time,” Ryabikin explains.
Another application is the creation of new electrical conductors. According to Ryabikin, with the help of attosecond lasers it was possible to detect how a substance in an insulator becomes conductive for a short time and then becomes conductive again.
“For example, if you send a short laser pulse onto silicon, it changes from a dielectric to a conductor. When the pulse ends, a return to the opposite state occurs. We would never know this without the technology. This can be used to speed up the operation of computers; we can build a memory cell on top of it,” Ryabikin said.
You can also control the chemical reaction using technology; Using flashes of light, you can direct an electron to the right places in the molecule. In this way the performance of solar panels can be significantly increased. Attosecond pulses can also be used to identify various molecules in the diagnosis of various diseases such as lung cancer.
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Sergeev, formerly Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences said About which lasers will let you look into the nucleus of an atom.