All ultrafast articles
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ResearchShortest-lived and lightest magnesium isotope ever too unstable to even attract electrons
Magnesium-18 cation has a fleeting half-life of 3 billion trillionths of a second
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ResearchFirst snapshots of ionised water’s fleeting radical–cation pair
Ultrafast electron diffraction spots hydroxyl–hydronium complex before it separates a hundred quadrillionth of a second later
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ResearchUltrafast experiments capture speed-of-light excitation delay as photon travels across H2
Photon excites one end of the molecule first, and then the other end 247 zeptoseconds later
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FeatureDirect observation of the transition state
The mystery of precisely what happens when one chemical reacts to form a new one is now being revealed in ever greater detail
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ResearchSimulated chiral light identifies and controls mirror-image molecules
Theoretical ‘photonic reagent’ could highlight enantiomers for simple separation
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NewsLaser tools bag physics Nobel as first woman wins prize for 55 years
Arthur Ashkin, inventor of optical tweezers, shares honour with laser pulse pioneers Donna Strickland and Gérard Mourou
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ResearchUltrafast lasers promise to make lead ‘look like’ gold
Theoretical study suggests atomic mimicry could reshape spectroscopy, information processing – and even chemical reactivity
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FeatureThe fleeting frontier
Andy Extance finds out how chemists are studying processes lasting trillionths of a second – and even less – using laser-based pump–probe experiments