featured publications – Our knowledge of how electrons behave in atoms and molecules is steadily increasing. This is largely due to the advances in attosecond physics that have taken place over the past two decades. Professor Ferenc Krausz was one of the pioneers in this young field. Indeed, he was the first to break into the attosecond domain, generating pulses of light with sub-femtosecond durations in 2001. Such ultrashort flashes can be used to study the ultrafast dynamics of electrons within atoms. Krausz has now published a book that traces the development of attosecond physics. Entitled “Electrons in Motion”, it draws on all the knowledge, experience and insights he has acquired in the field. Readers will find here a compact and chronologically ordered collection of his most important scientific publications, which have appeared in the world’s leading journals, such as Science and Nature, in the last 20 years. Each of the book’s 12 chapters focuses on a notable milestone in the evolution of attosecond physics. Krausz not only describes the background to these breakthroughs in introductory commentaries, he also provides colorful and informative illustrations, and intriguing impressions of life and work in the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics, which is jointly run by the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics and the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich. The volume ends with a fascinating look at how the developments in laser technology that have made attosecond physics possible could be leveraged for practical purposes in the not-so-distant future. Among the applications now under exploration is the use of laser-based molecular spectroscopy for the early diagnosis of life-threatening diseases.
World Scientific Series on Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics: Volume 4
Ferenc Krausz
Electrons in Motion
Attosecond Physics Explores Fastest Dynamics, August 2019,
536 pp, 187,50 Euro
ISBN: 978-981-120-186-8 (Hardcover)