Quantum stroboscope used to film an electron riding a light wave — first ever look at an electron in motion

Scientists at the University of Lund used an attosecond pulse laser to peer deep into the world of the unimaginably small and bring back a trophy.

Their work was published on February 21, 2008 in Physical Review Letters.

The abstract of the paper follows.

Coherent Electron Scattering Captured by an Attosecond Quantum Stroboscope

We demonstrate a quantum stroboscope based on a sequence of identical attosecond pulses that are used to release electrons into a strong infrared (IR) laser field exactly once per laser cycle. The resulting electron momentum distributions are recorded as a function of time delay between the IR laser and the attosecond pulse train using a velocity map imaging spectrometer. Because our train of attosecond pulses creates a train of identical electron wave packets, a single ionization event can be studied stroboscopically. This technique has enabled us to image the coherent electron scattering that takes place when the IR field is sufficiently strong to reverse the initial direction of the electron motion causing it to rescatter from its parent ion.

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Here's a link to an article published the same day as the scientific paper which explains at greater length the nature of the work.