Attosecond science and the tunnelling time problem

The question of how long it takes a particle to tunnel through a potential barrier has been a subject of intense theoretical debate for the last 80 years. In this decade of attosecond science, the answer to this question not only promises to deepen our understanding of fundamental quantum mechanics, but also has significant practical implications for how we interpret attosecond electron dynamics that underlie important phenomena in physics, chemistry and biology. Here we attempt to address this problem in the context of recent experimental measurements which use state-of-the-art ultrafast laser technology to resolve electron dynamics on the attosecond time-scale. This review therefore brings the theory of tunnelling time to the arena of ultrafast science, opening the door to improved resolution of, and cross-fertilization between, significant practical and fundamental questions in both fields. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.