JERUSALEM, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Israeli scientists have developed a method to measure the length of some of the fastest laser pulses ever created, and to determine their shape, said a report of the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS) in central Israel.
These pulses, created in a WIS laboratory, last only a few attoseconds.
Because of the tremendous speed of the pulses, it was not possible so far to accurately measure their length and determine their shape.
To solve the problem, the Israeli researchers combined two ultrafast laser pulses and measured them together, so that the combination of the two worked as a hologram.
In physics, holography is used to analyze three-dimensional images of objects in space. The WIS researchers applied this idea to demonstrate a four-dimensional hologram.
Recording this hologram, together with knowing the interference pattern of the two pulses, enabled the team to reconstruct phases of the two light waves.
With this way, the researchers could measure the shape of these pulses with attosecond accuracy using a direct simple spectral measurement.
"This could change some ideas in the field, because we showed that it is possible to measure something that is incredibly fast with a much slower detector," the researchers said.
The method may be used to measure all sorts of quantum phenomena, researchers said.
