Source: CNR  8^th Oct 2026

By Wang Zehua

According to a report on China National Radio's Voice of China program News and Newspaper Digest, construction of the Advanced Attosecond Laser Facility (Dongguan section) is in full swing during the National Day holiday. Located in the eastern part of Songshan Lake Science City in Dongguan, Guangdong, the project is a national major science and technology infrastructure and the first attosecond laser mega-facility in Asia and the second in the world. Builders are staying at their posts, seizing the window of opportunity, and pushing toward the completion milestone.

At the construction site in Songshan Lake Science City, workers in the cleanroom area are carrying out perimeter sealing work in an orderly manner. Inside the facility building, multiple processes are proceeding in parallel, including mechanical and electrical installation, interior finishing, and ultra-clean construction. Hu Wenjun, project manager for the Advanced Attosecond Laser Facility (Dongguan section) at China Construction First Building Construction & Development Co., said that every process and every error is strictly controlled at the millimeter or even micron level.

Hu Wenjun: "The closer we get to the final stage, the more we need refined management. We are pinning every milestone to the calendar to ensure the project is delivered on schedule, with quality and safety."

An attosecond is the shortest time scale currently accessible to humanity, with one attosecond equal to one quintillionth of a second. Zhao Kun, chief engineer of the Advanced Attosecond Laser Facility at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the movement and transitions of electrons inside atoms all occur on the attosecond scale, and this facility is essentially an "ultrafast camera" for the microscopic world.

Zhao Kun: "With attosecond lasers, we can directly capture the entire process of electron motion, turning microscopic mechanisms that could previously only be inferred into animation-like images that can actually be observed."

Clearly, translating extreme experimental conditions from scientific research into engineering construction has presented a series of unprecedented construction challenges, with every specification approaching the limits of the construction field. Lin Zuojiang, general commander of the Advanced Attosecond Laser Facility project at China Construction First Building Construction & Development Co., said the team innovatively adopted a new vibration isolation system, reformed traditional construction techniques, and established a five-level cleanliness control system, using the pinnacle of Chinese construction expertise to meet the exceptional standards of a major scientific facility.

Lin Zuojiang: "To maintain a micron-level stable environment in the experimental area, we designed a triple-protection vibration isolation system. The vibration amplitude in the laboratory environment will be controlled within 3 microns, equivalent to steadily holding an embroidery needle in Force 10 winds and waves."

Feng Ji, executive deputy general commander of the Advanced Attosecond Laser Facility at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that in the future, the Advanced Attosecond Laser Facility (Dongguan section) will be linked with major scientific facilities such as the China Spallation Neutron Source, serving the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and reaching across the country, laying a solid foundation for breakthroughs on major scientific frontiers and the production of major achievements.

Feng Ji: "The construction of the Advanced Attosecond Laser Facility is expected to help Chinese scientists generate a series of original innovation results in fields such as new materials, biomedicine, and next-generation information technology, and to support China's steady progress toward high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and strength, one step at a time."