How to Use a Laser to Kick an Electron out of a Molecule

Nature replays the confrontation between matter and light over and over again.

Light kicks off a physical process that begins when a photon hits an atom in the scene. The chemical conversion of carbon dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen is done by the sun's rays. When you get a sunburn, the light from the sun damages your skin. The process of converting photon from the sun into a flow of electrons is found in solar panels.

Physicists don't know what happens when a photon and a molecule meet. There is a play-by-play that occurs over attoseconds. A special laser is used to study ephemeral phenomena. The shutter speed of a camera is similar to that of a laser pulse. The longer the pulse, the clearer it is to see an electron moving. Physicists gain a better understanding of a fundamental process when they study these moments.

The time it took an electron to leave a two-atom molecule was measured by physicists at multiple institutions in China. The authors wrote in the paper that their experimental technique opens up a new avenue to study how light interacts with electrons in more complex molecules. They didn't agree to an interview withWIRED.

The researchers measured how long it took for the electron to leave the molecule after the light hit it. They discovered that the electron traveled between the two atoms for 3,500 attoseconds before it hit the ground. It takes a third of a second for the blink of an eye to equal that speed.

The researchers tracked the property of the light to keep time in the experiment. There are many types of waves and they all have the same property called polarization. Imagine an ocean wave and think about what it would look like. The direction in which the wave crests and dips is determined by the direction in which the wave travels.

A light wave is a force field in the air that pushes or pulls on electricity. The strength of the force field goes up and down when light travels through a space. The light shows the direction that the field is moving in. When light is directed in a certain direction, it will cause an electron to be switched back and forth.