VIENNA, Feb 26: Austro-Hungarian physicist Ferenc Krauzs on Thursday here said scientists had developed a device that can measure the speed of atomic processes down to the smallest fraction of a second yet.

Describing the device as "the fastest stopwatch in the world", Krauzs said it measures the movement of atomic particles in time units smaller than 100 attoseconds.

An attosecond is the name given to a quintillionth, or a millionth of a millionth of a millionth, of a second. "This time is to a second what a minute is to the age of the universe," Krauzs explained.

Whereas modern microscopes allow scientists to look at atoms at rest, the device allows them to record changes in atomic structure that happens so fast that it could not be documented before.

"Our aim is to trace the movement of electrons inside atoms in real time. We need very short bursts of time to take shots of auto seconds," he told AFP. "This is just like taking pictures with an ordinary camera of something happening in split seconds and then put them next to each other to see the movement. We are trying to reconstruct what happens in atoms."

He said the device, developed by a team of Austrian and German scientists, works by flashing the shortest X-ray pulses yet developed in the world onto electrons, propelling them out of their atomic binding. Deeper knowledge of what happens at this level, can help scientists to control chemical reactions and to synthesize new materials, he said. - AFP