Watching an Electron Being Born

A strong laser beam can remove an electron from an atom - a process which takes place almost instantly. At the Vienna University of Technology, this phenomenon could now be studied with a time resolution of less than ten attoseconds (ten billionths of a billionth of a second). Scientists succeeded in watching an atom being ionized and a free electron being "born". These measurements yield valuable information about the electrons in the atom, which up until now hasn't been experimentally accessible, such as the time evolution of the electron's quantum phase - the beat to which the quantum waves oscillate. Wave-like Quantum Interference In the experiment, short laser pulses are fired at atoms. Each laser pulse can be described as a light wave - the wave sweeps over the atom, and therefore, the electric field around the atom changes. The electric field rips an electron away from the atom - but the precise moment at which this happens cannot be defined.