Multimedia Gallery
Electron wave function
An artistic depiction of an electron being ripped from an atom by a strong laser field, which stretches its quantum wavefunction over hundreds of atomic sizes. Just as electrons accelerated in an X-ray tube emit bremsstrahlung radiation, electrons accelerated by a laser can emit rainbows of coherent X-rays in a laser-like beam. [Research supported through the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology at Colorado State University (grant EEC 03-10717).] (Date of Image: 2010-2011)
Credit: Tenio Popmintchev and Brad Baxley, JILA, University of Colorado Boulder
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