Development of attosecond pulses and their application to ultrafast dynamics of atoms and molecules

Abstract

In the past two decades,the development of laser technology has made attosecond science become a cutting-edge research field,providing various novel perspectives for the study of quantum few-body ultrafast evolution.The attosecond pulses prepared in the current laboratory are widely used in experimental research in the form of isolated pulses or pulse trains.The ultrafast changing light field allows people to control and track the motion of electrons at the atomic-scale,and realizes real-time tracking of electron dynamics on the sub-femtosecond time-scale.This review focuses on the progress in the study of ultrafast dynamics of atoms and molecules,which is an important part of attosecond science.Firstly,the generation and development of attosecond pulses are reviewed,mainly including the principle of high-order harmonic and the separation method of single-attosecond pulses.Then the applications of attosecond pulses are systematically introduced,including photo-ionization time delay,attosecond charge migration,non-adiabatic molecular dynamics and so on.Finally,the summary and outlook of the application of attosecond pulses are presented.