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An international team that includes University of British Columbia physicists has used ultra-fast laser pulses to identify the microscopic interactions that drive high-temperature superconductivity.

Scientists working at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have created the shortest, purest X-ray laser pulses ever achieved, fulfilling a 45-year-old prediction and opening the door to a new range of scientific discovery.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Subatomic events can be remarkably counterintuitive. Such is the case in theoretical physics when, under certain specific conditions, atoms exposed to intense infrared laser pulses remain stable rather than undergoing the ionization expected from electric fields at least as strong as the electrostatic forces binding the irradiated valence electrons. Inspired by the observed acceleration of neutral atoms1, and other recent experiments2, researchers at the Max-Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics in Berlin have shown that, in theory, angular resolved photoelectron spectroscopy can be used to directly image these so-called laser-dressed stable atoms.

Just as a camera flash illuminates unseen objects hidden in darkness, a sequence of laser pulses can be used to study the elusive quantum behavior of a large "macroscopic" object. This method provides a novel tool of unprecedented performance for current experiments that push the boundaries of the quantum world to larger and larger scales.