Final Activity Report Summary - XTRA (Ultrashort XUV pulses for Time-Resolved and Non-Linear Applications)
Attosecond pulses were first demonstrated in 2001. Subsequently, the XTRA project network was formed, based on the notion that this development contained the tremendous promise for future research on ultrafast electron dynamics and that this new field of research would benefit considerably from the creation of a research and training environment, where a new generation of young research scientists would be trained by both teams responsible for the development of ultrashort XUV pulses and teams interested in their application to fundamental problems. During the last four years the new field of attosecond science made the step from producing and characterising the attosecond pulses towards the first applications of the pulses, in which time-resolved electron dynamics in atomic, molecular and surface science was observed. The XTRA network played a tremendous role in this process and acted as a major force bringing and keeping the expanding attosecond research community together.