The most direct way to probe the strength of an electric field, is to measure the force that
exerts to a charged particle. For a time varying field, charge placement within an interval
substantially shorter than the characteristic period of variation of the field is essential for
sampling its temporal evolution. Employing such a scheme to track the field variation
of light waves that changes its direction 1015 times per second, charge release shall be
confined within a fraction of a femtosecond.
In this thesis, the complete characterization of a light pulse is demonstrated experimentally
for the first time by probing its field variation using a 250 attosecond electron
burst. Such an ultrafast charge probe, can be generated by the impulsive ionization of
atoms, using an XUV attosecond pulse precisely synchronized with the light waveform to
be characterized. The technique allows access to the instantaneous value of the electric
field of IR, visible, or UV light and thereby opens the door for the synthesis of controlled,
extremely broadband and arbitrarily shaped light waveforms.
The above experiments, are presented along with critical pertinent developments on the
generation of few-cycle phase-controlled light waveforms and their subsequent exploitation,
for the generation of isolated XUV attosecond pulses.
Precisely characterized and controlled light fields and XUV attosecond pulses employed
in combination, hold the promise for probe and control of elementary processes evolving
on an attosecond time scale