Filaments of light dynamically isolate a single attosecond pulse.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 41991924.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-026-71478-w and PMC identifier 13087199.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
By matching a driving laser’s peak power to the self-focusing threshold in an extended gas cell, a nonlinear light filament is formed that naturally isolates attosecond pulses. As it propagates, the filament autonomously shortens and spatially cleans the driving beam, while simultaneously altering the local medium properties to synchronize the light fields. This dynamic effect restricts the coherent buildup of emitted radiation to a single half-cycle, eliminating the need for complex external optical gating.