Abstract
The fastest events in nature occur in optics. That has to do with the speed of light that cannot be surmounted. But are we also able to handle this speed in measurements on fast events? Not quite, but we are approaching the limits more and more. To measure ever shorter events is like approaching absolute zero in temperature. You are very close, but you may come closer. To stop a motion, everybody knows that a short exposure time is needed. This can be done with a fast shutter or by illuminating the moving object by a short enough light pulse. Both, to build ever faster shutters and to produce ever shorter light pulses thus persists as an important topic in optics. New developments in optical technology have brought substantial progress in this area. Even light in flight can now be photographed.
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Lauterborn, W., Kurz, T. (2003). Ultrafast Optics. In: Coherent Optics. Advanced Texts in Physics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-05273-0_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-05273-0_11
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