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.
[1] M. Hentschel et al., Nature 414, 509 (2001)
[2] R. Kienberger et al., Science 291, 1923 (2002)
[3] A. Baltuska et al., Nature 421, 611 (2003)
[4] R. Kienberger et al., Nature 427, 817 (2004)
[5] E. Goulielmakis et al., Science 305, 1267 (2004)
[6] M. Drescher et al., Nature 419, 803 (2002)
[7] M. Uiberacker et al., Nature 446, 627 (2007)
[8] M. Kling et al., Science 312, 246 (2006)
[9] A. Cavalieri et al., Nature 449, 1029 (2007)
[10] E. Goulielmakis et al., Science 317, 769 (2007)
[11] E. Goulielmakis et al., Science 320, 1614 (2008)
[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).

Studying Quantum Mechanics in the Time Domain