Snapshots of Band-Gap Jump (IMAGE) University of California - Berkeley Caption By probing a silicon crystal with attosecond laser pulses, UC Berkeley scientists got a series of snapshots of the electron energies in the semiconductor. From back to front, the atom-bound electrons have a very narrow, sharply peaked range of energies (red), but once the electrons jump to the conduction band, the energy distribution spreads out (orange and yellow). The jump takes only 450 attoseconds. Credit Stephen Leone & Daniel Neumark, Attosecond Physics Laboratory, UC Berkeley. Usage Restrictions None License Licensed content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.