German scientists claim to have measured the shortest-ever time interval by discovering the tiniest duration an electron takes to leave the atom.
Until now, it has been assumed that the electrons start moving out of the atom immediately after the impact of the photons or light particles. This effect, known as photoemission, was explained by Albert Einstein more than a hundred years ago.
But physicists from the Technische Universitaet Muenchen, the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen and the Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics found that when light is absorbed by atoms, the electrons become excited and get ejected from the atom if the photons carry sufficient energy.
However, there is a time delay in electrons being separated from atoms which they claim is the shortest time interval measured to date. Using their ultra-short time measurement technology, the physicists fired pulses of near-infrared laser light at atoms of the noble gas neon. The findings appeared in the journal Science.
The atoms were simultaneously hit by extreme ultraviolet pulses with a duration of 180 attoseconds, liberating electrons from their atomic orbitals. Then they recorded when the excited electrons left the atom.
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Frenchman hacks Twitter, convicted
Paris, June 25: A court in central France has convicted a young Frenchman accused of infiltrating Twitter and peeping at the account of US President Barack Obama, and given him a five-month suspended prison sentence.
The lawyer for Francois Cousteix, whose online name was Hacker Croll, says his client was happy with Thursday evening’s decision by the Clermont-Ferrand court. He risked up to two years in prison for breaking into a data system.
Attorney Jean-Francois Canis said on Friday by telephone that “the verdict is satisfying, given all the media pressure that built up.”
Francois Cousteix, who is in his early 20s, infiltrated Twitter, and the accounts of US President Obama and singers Britney Spears and Lily Allen but maintained his motives were good — to warn Internet users about data security. —AP