Attosecond Dynamics of Non-resonant Atomic Photoionization

The interaction of light with matter played a key role in the establishment of quantum mechanics, and each development of new light sources led to important advances in science, technology and society. An exciting area of physics has been opened with the new millennium, attosecond physics, where the motion of electrons can be studied at the fastest time scale ever reached with light. We review the field of non-resonant photoionization of rare gases using attosecond pulses, with an emphasis on the theoretical background of the reconstruction of attosecond beating by interference of two-photon transition (RABBIT) measurement technique. This approach allows the description of photoionization in the time domain while keeping a high spectral resolution. Examples show the status and the progress in the field during the last decade.