According to "Focus on Attosecond Physics," André D Bandrauk et al 2008 New J. Phys. 10 025004 doi: 10.1088/1367-2630/10/2/025004 (you can find it at http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/1367-2630/10/2/025004):

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Focus on Attosecond Physics. André D Bandrauk a, Ferenc Krausz b and Anthony F Starace c

Investigations of light–matter interactions and motion in the microcosm have entered a new temporal regime, the regime of attosecond physics. It is a main 'spin-off' of strong field (i.e., intense laser) physics, in which nonperturbative effects are fundamental. Attosecond pulses open up new avenues for time-domain studies of multi-electron dynamics in atoms, molecules, plasmas, and solids on their natural, quantum mechanical time scale and at dimensions shorter than molecular and even atomic scales. These capabilities promise a revolution in our microscopic knowledge and understanding of matter.

The recent development of intense, phase-stabilized femtosecond (10-15 s) lasers has allowed unparalleled temporal control of electrons from ionizing atoms, permitting for the first time the generation and measurement of isolated light pulses as well as trains of pulses on the attosecond (1 as = 10-18 s) time scale, the natural time scale of the electron itself (e.g., the orbital period of an electron in the ground state of the H atom is 152 as). This development is facilitating (and even catalyzing) a new class of ultrashort time domain studies in photobiology, photochemistry, and photophysics.

These new coherent, sub-fs pulses carried at frequencies in the extreme ultraviolet and soft-x-ray spectral regions, along with their intense, synchronized near-infrared driver waveforms and novel metrology based on sub-fs control of electron–light interactions, are spawning the new science of attosecond physics, whose aims are to monitor, to visualize, and, ultimately, to control electrons on their own time and spatial scales, i.e., the attosecond time scale and the sub-nanometre (Ångstrom) spatial scale typical of atoms and molecules. Additional goals for experiment are to advance the enabling technologies for producing attosecond pulses at higher intensities and shorter durations. According to theoretical predictions, novel methods for intense attosecond pulse generation may in future involve using overdense plasmas.

Electronic processes on sub-atomic spatio-temporal scales are the basis of chemical physics, atomic, molecular, and optical physics, materials science, and even some life science processes. Research in these areas using the new attosecond tools will advance together with the ability to control electrons themselves. Indeed, we expect that developments will advance in a way that is similar to advances that have occurred on the femtosecond time scale, in which much previous experimental and theoretical work on the interaction of coherent light sources has led to the development of means for 'coherent control' of nuclear motion in molecules.
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The recent advances are detailed in the next Nature Physics issue ("Coherent control of attosecond emission from aligned molecules"). The abtract says:

"Controlling attosecond electron wave packets and soft X-ray pulses represents a formidable challenge of general implication to many areas of science. A strong laser field interacting with atoms or molecules drives ultrafast intra-atomic/molecular electron wave packets on a subfemtosecond timescale, resulting in the emission of attosecond bursts of extreme-ultraviolet light. Controlling the intra-atomic/molecular electron dynamics enables steering of the attosecond emission. Here, we carry out a coherent control in linear molecules, where the interaction of the laser-driven electron wave packet with the core leads to quantum interferences. We demonstrate that these interferences can be finely controlled by turning the molecular axis relative to the laser polarization, that is, changing the electron recollision angle. The wave-packet coulombic distortion modifies the spectral phase jump measured in the extremeultraviolet emission. Our attosecond control of the interference results in attosecond pulse shaping, useful for future applications in ultrafast coherent control of atomic and molecular processes." [citations omitted]

The applications in nanotechnology and medicine are obvious and interesting. Those interested can ask for contacts.

a Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada
b Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany
c The University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA

1 CEA-Saclay, DSM, Service des Photons, Atomes et Molecules, France
2 J.J. Thomson Physical Laboratory, University of Reading, UK
3 Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
4 The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London
5 UPMC Univ Paris 06, Laboratoire de Chimie Physique-Matiere et Rayonnement
6 CNRS, Paris