From July 2 to 6, 2024, the Second International Conference on Scientific Opportunities with Advanced Attosecond Lasers (SOAL-2024), co-organized by the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, was successfully held at Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory. More than 110 experts and students from 9 countries attended the conference to discuss the cutting-edge issues and application prospects of attosecond laser science.

The opening ceremony of the conference was hosted by Meng Sheng, a researcher at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Fang Zhong, director of the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Li Jun, deputy mayor of Dongguan Municipal Government of Guangdong Province, and Zhao Wei, a researcher at the Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, delivered speeches respectively, expressing their warm welcome to the participants. Fang Zhong first reviewed the background of the establishment of the Attosecond Science Center, pointing out that the advanced attosecond laser facilities built on the basis of the center will provide forward-looking research support for multiple cutting-edge scientific fields, greatly promoting the development of applied research and cutting-edge technologies. The purpose of this conference is to build an international academic exchange and cooperation platform for attosecond laser science for top experts and researchers from different countries. Subsequently, Li Jun introduced Dongguan's urban characteristics of "scientific and technological innovation + advanced manufacturing" in her speech. Laser is an emerging industry that Dongguan is focusing on developing. She expressed the hope that through this conference, Dongguan will further deepen its cooperation with domestic and foreign scientific research institutions and universities, and jointly promote the research and application of ultrafast science and attosecond laser technology. Then, Zhao Wei spoke on behalf of the organizer, Xiguang Institute. He emphasized that attosecond laser is not only an important tool for studying the microscopic world in physics, but also has greatly promoted the research on the evolution mechanism of matter at the electronic scale in the fields of materials, chemistry, biology, etc. He hoped that the conference would promote more cooperation opportunities for experts and scholars at home and abroad, and make greater contributions to the development of attosecond laser science.

This conference received extensive support and response from scientific research institutions and universities at home and abroad. A total of 33 well-known experts from home and abroad gave keynote speeches, and 5 scholars and graduate students gave short reports, introducing the latest research progress and achievements in the fields of attosecond science and technology, ultrafast phenomena and dynamics, advanced lasers, ultrafast terahertz spectroscopy and photonics. The conference invited many international attosecond experts, including Subhendu KAHALY, Tamás Csizmadia, and József András FÜLÖP from the European ELI-ALPS attosecond light source, Professor Hans Jakob Wörner from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Professor Jiro Itatani from the University of Tokyo, Alexander Weigel from the Max Planck Institute in Germany, BOUTU Willem from the University of Paris-Saclay, Assistant Professor Francesco Segatta from the University of Bologna, and Assistant Professor Tran Trung LUU from the University of Hong Kong, to introduce their cutting-edge research progress. In addition, experts from relevant institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and universities such as Tsinghua University, Fudan University, and Zhejiang University also introduced their remarkable achievements in this field, fully demonstrating the significant contributions of Chinese scientists to the development of attosecond science and technology and their continuous efforts and outstanding achievements in scientific and technological innovation. During the five-day conference, the participants discussed in depth the key research directions, future trends, and challenges in the field of attosecond laser science and application.

At the end of the meeting, Zhao Kun, a researcher at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, delivered a closing speech, summarizing the wonderful reports and fruitful results of this conference. He expressed the hope that the advanced attosecond laser facility to be built will provide domestic and foreign scientists with new opportunities to fully understand the microscopic dynamic properties of matter. He also hopes that each future conference will become a bridge for scientists from various countries to maintain long-term academic exchanges and cooperation, and jointly promote the development of attosecond laser science and applications.