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Rainbows of color support a few extremely short attosecond light pulses
An artistic depiction of a coherent, laser-like X-ray pulse with the largest color spread generated to date. Rainbows of color such as this can support a few extremely short attosecond light pulses -- one attosecond is approximately the time it takes for light to travel the length of three hydrogen atoms. These laser-like X-ray pulses are faster than any process in our physical world and invisible to the human eye.
[Research supported through the U.S. National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology at Colorado State University (grant EEC 0310717).] (Date of Image: 2010-2011; date added to Multimedia Gallery: March 18, 2014)
Credit: Tenio Popmintchev and Brad Baxley, JILA, University of Colorado Boulder
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