A stopwatch for electron flashes: duration of energetic electron pulses measured using laser fields

A stopwatch made of light can determine the duration of extremely brief electron flashes. Scientists have, for the first time, succeeded in measuring the lengths of ultrashort bursts of highly energetic electrons using the electric fields of laser light. Such electron pulses, which behave like ultrashort matter waves, provide time-resolved recordings of processes taking place in molecules and atoms, enabling elementary particles to be "filmed" in four dimensions.

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