The Nobel Prize in Physics recognized the work of Pierre Agostini, Anne L'Huillier, and Ferenc Krausz, extending over several decades, to generate, characterize and manipulate coherent light pulses with a duration on the order of 100 as. In this talk, I will give a brief description of the physics underlying their efforts. I will conclude by highlighting a few examples of how these pulses can be employed to probe the electron dynamics in atoms, molecules, and condensed matter systems.
Paulo Brás, Paulo Silva, Jaime Silva