On January 10, the groundbreaking ceremony for the advanced attosecond laser facility, a significant national scientific infrastructure project, was held at the Songshan Lake Science City in Guangdong. This facility marks the official commencement of construction for Asia's first and the world's second advanced attosecond laser facility.
The project is led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and will feature 10 beamlines and 22 application terminals, with 6 beamlines and 13 research terminals established in Dongguan. This initiative follows the establishment of the China Spallation Neutron Source, further enhancing the scientific landscape of the Songshan Lake Science City.
The advanced attosecond laser facility aims to provide comprehensive ultrafast electron dynamics research capabilities, boasting attosecond time resolution and high spatiotemporal coherence. The facility is set to track, measure, and manipulate electron motion, allowing scientists to delve deeper into the evolutionary patterns of material states. This project is expected to provide crucial technological support for significant breakthroughs in foundational research in material science.
Over the next five years, the engineering team will construct a wide spectrum of 10 ultrafast laser beamlines, alongside 22 research terminals tailored to meet multidisciplinary electron dynamics research needs. The facility will achieve full wavelength coverage from nanometers to millimeters and terahertz, creating a comprehensive experimental platform for light, electricity, magnetism, and heat, with breakthroughs in pulse energy, pulse width, photon energy, and photon flux.
The Xi'an section of the advanced attosecond laser facility will include 4 beamlines and 9 research terminals, managed by the CAS Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics. Meanwhile, the Dongguan section will focus on establishing 6 beamlines and 13 research terminals under the auspices of the CAS Institute of Physics.
Attoseconds represent the shortest time scale currently measurable by humanity, with 1 attosecond equating to 10^-18 seconds. Attosecond lasers serve as a "super-fast shutter" for observing the microscopic world, enabling researchers to capture dynamic images of fast-moving electrons. This technology allows for the documentation of their motion and associated quantum characteristics, magnetic changes, chemical reactions, and phase transitions in materials.
The advent of attosecond laser technology provides novel tools for addressing significant scientific questions across physics, chemistry, materials science, information technology, and biomedicine. Notably, the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to scientists in the field of attosecond laser research.
This facility is expected to make significant advancements in critical scientific inquiries, such as the mechanisms of high-temperature superconductivity, the origins of direct electron exchange interactions, and charge transport dynamics in semiconductors. It will also address vital issues related to national economic growth and public health, including electron dynamics in photosynthesis and pharmaceutical molecules.
Furthermore, the establishment of this large-scale scientific facility is anticipated to create an innovation hub, providing essential support for the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as an international center for scientific innovation and a comprehensive national science center, thereby contributing to the achievement of high-level technological self-reliance and strength.
Reporter: Xie Maishi
Photo: Chen Yajing
Editor: Wei Shen, James, Shen He
