Complete Characterization of Light Waves using Attosecond Pulses

The most direct way to probe the strength of an electric field, is
to measure the force that exerts to a charged particle. For a time
varying field, charge placement within an interval substantially
shorter than the characteristic period of variation of the field is
essential for sampling its temporal evolution. Employing such a
scheme to track the field variation of light waves that changes its
direction 1015 times per second, charge release shall be confined
within a fraction of a femtosecond. In this thesis, the complete
characterization of a light pulse is demonstrated experimentally
for the first time by probing its field variation using a 250
attosecond electron burst. Such an ultrafast charge probe, can be
generated by the impulsive ionization of atoms, using an XUV
attosecond pulse precisely synchronized with the light waveform to
be characterized. The technique allows access to the instantaneous
value of the electric field of IR, visible, or UV light and thereby
opens the door for the synthesis of controlled, extremely broadband
and arbitrarily shaped light waveforms. The above experiments, are
presented along with critical pertinent developments on the
generation of few-cycle phase-controlled light waveforms and their
subsequent exploitation, for the generation of isolated XUV
attosecond pulses. Precisely characterized and controlled light
fields and XUV attosecond pulses employed in combination, hold the
promise for probe and control of elementary processes evolving on
an attosecond time scale.