Electronic motion is a key process in a wide range of modern technologies, including micro- to nano-electronics, photovoltaics, bioinformatics, molecular biology, and medical as well as information technologies. The atomic-scale motion of electrons typically unfolds within tens to thousands of attoseconds (1 attosecond [as] = 10^-18 s). Recent advances in laser science have opened the door to watching and controlling these hitherto inaccessible microscopic dynamics [1]-[14]. Key tools include waveform-controlled few-cycle laser light and attosecond extreme ultraviolet pulses. They permit control of atomic-scale electric currents just as microwave fields control currents in nanometer-scale semiconductor chips. By analogy to microwave electronics, we have dubbed this new technology "lightwave electronics" [10,12]. Lightwave electronics provides - for the first time - real-time access to the motion of electrons on atomic and sub-atomic scales. Insight into and control over microscopic electron motion are likely to be important for developing brilliant sources of X-rays, understanding molecular processes relevant to the curing effects of drugs, the transport of bioinformation, or the damage and repair mechanisms of DNA, at the most fundamental level, where the borders between physics, chemistry and biology disappear. Once implemented in condensed matter, the new technology will be instrumental in advancing electronics and electron-based information technologies to their ultimate speed: from microwave towards lightwave frequencies.
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[5] E. Goulielmakis et al., Science 305, 1267 (2004)
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[12] F. Krausz, M. Ivanov, Rev. Mod. Phys. 81, 163 (2009).
[13] M. Schultze et al., Science 328, 1658 (2010). E. Goulielmakis et al., Nature 466, 739 (2010).

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Studying Quantum Mechanics in the Time Domain