The unbelievable speed of electron emission from an atom

In a unique experiment, researchers have clocked how long it takes for an electron to be emitted from an atom. The result is .00000000000000002 seconds, or 20 billionths of a billionth of a second. The researchers’ stopwatch consists of extremely short laser pulses. Hopefully, the results will help to provide new insights into some of the most fundamental processes in nature.

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Tau.Neutrino said:

The unbelievable speed of electron emission from an atom

In a unique experiment, researchers have clocked how long it takes for an electron to be emitted from an atom. The result is .00000000000000002 seconds, or 20 billionths of a billionth of a second. The researchers’ stopwatch consists of extremely short laser pulses. Hopefully, the results will help to provide new insights into some of the most fundamental processes in nature.

more…

I don’t know what it means to measure “how long it takes for an electron to be emitted from an atom”.

I don’t see how the process of electron emission can be given a defined start and stop.

Although the article is not completely clear, I would think that this is a measurement of the duration of the transitional state.

This is an example of electron tunnelling?

Tunnelling has been known to occur faster than the speed of light.