femtosecond
Laser pulse duration
A femtosecond is one quadrillionth of a second—a millionth of a billionth.
The prefix femto- denotes 10⁻¹⁵.
At this scale, light travels only about 300 nanometers, less than the width of a bacterium.
Femtosecond lasers enable precise measurements and surgeries impossible at longer timescales: femtosecond spectroscopy, femtosecond LASIK.
Extremely rapid
- pulseArterial blood throb
- chirpedMade small bird sounds
- amplificationIncrease in intensity
- oscillationRepeated back-and-forth movement
regenerative · dispersion · compression · bandwidth · repetition · cavity · amplifier · pump
Divided by ten-to-fifteenth
- ultrashortExceptionally brief in duration
- transientTemporary, soon departing
- ephemeralLasting very briefly
- fleetingPassing very quickly
instantaneous · duration · interval · temporal · chronometry · timekeeping · measurement · resolution
Study of forces
- excitationStimulation of response
- relaxationState of being unwound
- electronsNegative charges in atoms
- molecularOf tiny particles
vibrational · coherence · transient · absorption · fluorescence · photochemistry · reaction · kinetics
Manufacturing at microscopic scales
- ablationRemoval by cutting, melting
- LASIKCorneal vision correction
- surgeryInvasive medical procedure
- imagingProducing visual representations
microscopy · comb · frequency · metrology · precision · manufacturing · materials · processing
ultrafast
Extremely rapid
- pulseArterial blood throb
- chirpedMade small bird sounds
- amplificationIncrease in intensity
oscillation · regenerative · dispersion · compression · bandwidth · repetition · cavity · amplifier · pump · seed
quadrillionth
Divided by ten-to-fifteenth
- ultrashortExceptionally brief in duration
- transientTemporary, soon departing
- ephemeralLasting very briefly
fleeting · instantaneous · duration · interval · temporal · chronometry · timekeeping · measurement · resolution · precision
dynamics
Study of forces
- excitationStimulation of response
- relaxationState of being unwound
- electronsNegative charges in atoms
molecular · vibrational · coherence · transient · absorption · fluorescence · photochemistry · reaction · kinetics · decay
micromachining
Manufacturing at microscopic scales
imaging · microscopy · comb · frequency · metrology · precision · manufacturing · materials · processing · nanofabrication
femtosecondeon
Immense time division
eternity · aeon · epoch · millennium · era
femtosecondlifetime
Duration of existence
generation · moment · heartbeat · breath · blink of an eye