attosecond

plural attoseconds

1. metrologyAn SI unit of time equal to 10⁻¹⁸ seconds. Symbol: as

   Meronyms: quectosecond < rontosecond < yoctosecond < zeptosecond

   5 more examples

   Holonyms: femtosecond < picosecond < nanosecond < microsecond < millisecond < centisecond < decisecond < second < decasecond < minute < hectosecond < kilosecond < hour < day < week < megasecond < fortnight < month < year < gigasecond < century < kiloannum, kiloyear, millennium < terasecond < mega-annum, megayear < petasecond < giga-annum, gigayear < exasecond < zettasecond < yottasecond < ronnasecond < quettasecond

   I can think at the speed of light, I can perceive events that last for less than an attosecond, I can run faster than time. What do I see when I run across the country, Superman? I see everything. And everyone.

   2011, Barry Allen, Superman 709

   The observation and manipulation of electron dynamics in matter call for attosecond light pulses, routinely available from high-order harmonic generation driven by few-femtosecond lasers.

   2017, D. E. Rivas, A. Borot, D. E. Cardenas, G. Marcus, X. Gu, D. Herrmann, J. Xu, J. Tan, D. Kormin, G. Ma, W. Dallari, G. D. Tsakiris, I. B. Földes, S.-w. Chou, M. Weidman, B. Bergues, T. Wittmann, H. Schröder, P. Tzallas, D. Charalambidis, O. Razskazovskaya, V. Pervak, F. Krausz, L. Veisz, “Next Generation Driver for Attosecond and Laser-plasma Physics”, in Scientific Reports, volume 7, →DOI

   Given the scales on which technology has operated in the first quarter of the 21st century, from lasers that flash for just a few attoseconds to the total amount of digital data in the world pushing past 160 zettabytes, it feels as if we may have let things lie for too long. I don't know if the future will have quettabit computer networks or rontometer-scale wormholes, but I'm pretty sure the large and small of it will be hella weird.

   2023 January 10, Adam Rogers, “Move over, megatons”, in Business Insider, archived from the original on 20 Aug 2023

   We humans are so stuck in the middle of the cosmic scales — in average height, one-hundredth of one-septillionth (10^-24) the size of the observable universe, and with typical life spans of a couple octillion attoseconds. And an attosecond is an eternity compared with the lifetime of the elusive Higgs boson, a subatomic particle that exists for one-thousandth of an attosecond before decaying.

   2023 October 9, Dennis Overbye, “The Science Nobel Winners Were Short and Fast”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 12 Oct 2023