paper

Spontaneous and Stimulated Radiative emission of Modulated Free-Electron Quantum wavepackets - Semiclassical Analysis

arXiv:1804.00053 · doi:10.1088/2399-6528/aae2ec

Abstract

Here we present a semiclassical analysis of spontaneous and stimulated radiative emission from unmodulated and optically-modulated electron quantum wavepackets. We show that the radiative emission/absorption and corresponding deceleration/acceleration of the wavepackets depend on the controllable 'history-dependent' wavepacket size. The characteristics of the radiative interaction when a wavepacket of size (duration) is short relative to the radiation wavelength, are close to the predictions of the classical point-particle modeling. On the other hand, in the long-sized wavepacket limit, the interaction is quantum-mechanical, and it diminishes exponentially at high frequency. We exemplify these effects through the scheme of Smith-Purcell radiation, and demonstrate that if the wavepacket is optically-modulated and periodically-bunched, it exhibits finite radiative emission at harmonics of the modulation frequency beyond the limit of high-frequency cutoff. Besides, the radiation analysis is further extended to the cases of superradiant emission from a beam of phase-correlated modulated electron wavepackets. This wavepacket-dependent emission process shows the radiative features of classical-to-quantum transition, indicates a way for measuring the quantum electron wavepacket size and suggests a new direction for exploring light-matter interaction.

49 pages, 7 figures

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