XUV attosecond pulses: generation and measurement

An overview is given of the state-of-the-art in optical attosecond pulse generation and measurements. The emission of ultrashort bursts of XUV radiation from a laser driven plasma is described and analysed in the framework of a semiclassical model that explains essential features of the emitted spectrum. While under most conditions, trains of XUV bursts, separated by the half-cycle time of the driving laser field are emitted, few-cycle laser pulses of a well-defined carrier–envelope phase can yield isolated XUV pulses of sub-femtosecond duration. A time resolving correlation technique that relies on the interaction of electrons with a strong laser light field allows the measurement of attosecond electron dynamics from systems excited by these ultrashort XUV pulses.