Louis DiMauro, professor of physics, and his colleagues have recorded the first real-time image of two atoms vibrating in a molecule, using a new ultrafast camera.

Their work, which appears in this week's issue of the journal Nature, uses the energy of a molecule's own electron as a kind of "flash bulb" to illuminate the molecular motion.

DiMauro said this is a first step toward not only observing chemical reactions, but also controlling them on an atomic scale.

DiMauro's Atomic Physics Research Group focuses on interaction between atoms and intense laser pulses on an atomic timescale (attoseconds).

Their work is supported by the Department of Energy, the National Sciences Foundation, and The Ohio State University.

DiMauro's group is active in both theory and experiment in ultra-fast atomic physics.

Laboratories feature three state-of-the-art ultra-fast laser systems (800nm 30fs, 2um 50fs, 3.6um 100fs). A fourth Laser system (2um OPCPA) is currently under development.

Additional facilities include two target rooms with several experiment chambers.

Their experiments extend to the AMO fascilities at the Linac Coherent Light Source at SLAC. Their collaborators include: Univeristy of Michigan, Universität Jena , The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and Argonne National Labs