How short can the time window be in which electrons can be released from metals under the control of a light field? Researchers of LiMatI project S05 were able to answer this question, which is essential for future electronic circuits, in a collaborative experimental and theoretical study together with scientists from Erlangen and Konstanz with the help of a trick. By means of an extremely precisely adjustable superposition of two different laser fields, we have succeeded for the first time in measuring the tunneling of electrons from metals down to a few tens of attoseconds and in controlling the ultrafast electronic quantum dynamics. The findings could enable electronic signal processing that is up to a million times faster than current technology and were recently published (Dienstbier et al., Nature 616, 702-706 (2023)).
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- Press releases: FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg