The construction of the Advanced Attosecond Laser Facility, a major national scientific and technological infrastructure, officially started in Dongguan, Guangdong on January 10. After completion, the facility will provide strong support for multidisciplinary frontier basic research and industrial applications in physics, chemistry, materials, information, biomedicine, etc.
Attoseconds are the shortest time scale that humans can currently master, with 1 attosecond being only one billionth of a second. Using attosecond laser pulses, scientists can track, measure, and manipulate the movement of electrons, just like using an "ultra-high-speed camera" to capture the "dynamic image" of electrons.
The advanced attosecond laser facility is built by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with a total of 10 beamlines and 22 application terminals. The six beamlines that have started construction are managed by the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the other four beamlines will be built in Xi'an, Shaanxi, and will be managed by the Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
