Time-resolved atomic inner-shell spectroscopy

Drescher, M.
Hentschel, M.
Kienberger, R.
Uiberacker, M.
Yakovlev, V.
Scrinzi, A.
Westerwalbesloh, Th.
Kleineberg, U.
Heinzmann, U.
Krausz, F.

* Institut für Photonik, Technische Universität Wien, Gusshausstrasse 27, A-1040 Wien, Austria
† Fakultät für Physik, Universität Bielefeld, Universitätsstrasse 25, D-33615 Bielefeld, Germany

Received 5 August; accepted 20 September 2002; doi:1038/nature01143.

Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on Nature's website (➧ http://www.nature.com/nature).

Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to M.D. (e-mail: [email protected]) or F.K. (e-mail: [email protected]).

Nature 419(6909):p 803-807, October 24, 2002.

The characteristic time constants of the relaxation dynamics of core-excited atoms have hitherto been inferred from the linewidths of electronic transitions measured by continuous-wave extreme ultraviolet or X-ray spectroscopy. Here we demonstrate that a laser-based sampling system, consisting of a few-femtosecond visible light pulse and a synchronized sub-femtosecond soft X-ray pulse, allows us to trace these dynamics directly in the time domain with attosecond resolution. We have measured a lifetime of 7.9_−0.9^+1.0fs of M-shell vacancies of krypton in such a pump-probe experiment.