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Using quantum computers to search the web for information about fly-fishing in Paraguay might be less of a juggling act than physicists had thought, Philip Ball reports.

Metal carbonyl complexes show photoreactivity interesting for catalytic and biological applications. Here the authors capture the structural dynamics of the photodissociation of iron pentacarbonyl in real space and time using ultrafast X-ray scattering.

Radiation–matter interactions can become highly nonlinear when using high-intensity X-ray free-electron lasers. Under such conditions, it is shown that nonlinear Compton scattering has an anomalous redshift, whose origin remains unclear.

The demonstration of substantially enhanced high-harmonic emission from a silicon metasurface suggests a route towards novel photonic devices based on a combination of ultrafast strong-field physics and nanofabrication technology.

Molecules emit high harmonics when driven by strong laser fields. Here, Spector et al. measure how the harmonic spectrum and strength depend on the laser polarization direction in the molecular frame, which leads to a better understanding of the high harmonic process.

Time-resolved measurements of the X-ray photoemission delay of core-level electrons using attosecond soft X-ray pulses from a free-electron laser can be used to determine the complex correlated dynamics of photoionization.

Researchers have demonstrated the generation and control of subfemtosecond pulse pairs from a two-colour X-ray free-electron laser and conducted pump–probe experiments in core-ionized molecules.

Proton migration in the acetylene cation is commonly used as a model to study isomerisation dynamics. Here, the authors use X-ray pump-probe experiments to study this process, and show that isomerization occurs significantly faster than expected—within the first 12 femtoseconds following core ionization.

The generation of ultrashort X-ray pulses with a peak power exceeding 100 GW offers new opportunities for studying electron dynamics with nonlinear spectroscopy and single-particle imaging.

Control of nonlinear optical processes at the nanoscale is vital for the generation of on-chip short-wavelength sources, yet strong re-absorption of this radiation limits its efficiency in solids. Here, high harmonics are generated in an array of 1D silicon ridge waveguides, mitigating bulk re-absorption.

Almost 70 years after it was first proposed, an experiment shows that electrons can be diffracted by light waves. This result highlights the interchangeable roles of matter and light.

The successes of two pioneering groups are now brought together to create trains of identical ultrashort laser pulses that can control what's happening inside an atom.

Work involving a new tool in optics, a pulse shaper, shows how atoms can be made to absorb light readily, or not at all, simply by controlling the phase of light shone at them. The method can be added to a growing list of techniques for manipulating the internal quantum dynamics of atoms and molecules using the coherence properties of light.

Laser-induced Coulomb explosion imaging allows the study of molecular geometries over time, but the results are often distorted by ultrafast motion during the ionizing laser pulse. Here, the authors film the rapid slingshot motion in D₂O that induces this distortion and elucidate the underlying mechanism of enhanced ionization.

Coulomb Explosion imaging is a promising technique to study the ultrafast nuclear dynamics which underpin molecular photochemistry. By initiating Coulomb explosion through soft X-ray ionization, the authors are able to image ultrafast nuclear dynamics of a prototypical photoreaction.