Quantum effects in the interaction of low-energy electrons with light
arXiv:2403.09896 · doi:10.1126/sciadv.adp4096
Abstract
The interaction between free electrons and nanoscale optical fields has emerged as a unique platform to investigate ultrafast processes in matter and explore fundamental quantum phenomena. In particular, optically modulated electrons are employed in ultrafast electron microscopy as noninvasive probes that push the limits of spatiotemporal and spectral resolution down to the picometer--attosecond--microelectronvolt range. Electron kinetic energies well above the involved photon energies are commonly employed, rendering the electron--light coupling efficiency low and, thus, only providing limited access to the wealth of quantum nonlinear phenomena underlying the dynamical response of nanostructures. Here, we theoretically investigate electron--light interactions when photons and electrons have comparable energies, revealing strong quantum and recoil effects that include a nonvanishing coupling of surface-scattered electrons to plane waves of light, inelastic electron backscattering from localized optical fields, and strong electron--light coupling under grazing electron diffraction by an illuminated crystal surface. Our results open new vistas in electron--light--matter interactions with promising applications in ultrafast electron microscopy.
arXiv comment19 pages, 9 figures, 77 references
References in corpus (31)
- Universal Dynamic Conductivity and Quantized Visible Opacity of Suspended Graphene
- Measurement of the Optical Conductivity of Graphene
- Measurement of the optical dielectric function of transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers: MoS2, MoSe2, WS2 and WSe2
- Colloquium: Light scattering by particle and hole arrays
- Highly confined low-loss plasmons in graphene-boron nitride heterostructures
- Ultra-low-loss Polaritons in Isotopically Pure Materials: A New Approach
- Attosecond Electron Pulse Trains and Quantum State Reconstruction in Ultrafast Transmission Electron Microscopy
- Electron Beam Spectroscopy for Nanophotonics
- Coherent interaction between free electrons and a photonic cavity
- From attosecond to zeptosecond coherent control of free-electron wave functions using semi-infinite light fields
- Controlling free electrons with optical whispering-gallery modes
- Ultrafast Generation and Control of an Electron Vortex Beam via Chiral Plasmonic Near Fields
- Ponderomotive generation and detection of attosecond free-electron pulse trains
- Phase-ordering of charge density waves traced by ultrafast low-energy electron diffraction
- Observation of the Stimulated Quantum Cherenkov Effect
- Integrated photonics enables continuous-beam electron phase modulation
- Optical Excitations with Electron Beams: Challenges and Opportunities
- Plasmonics in Atomically-Thin Crystalline Silver Films
- Probing Quantum Optical Excitations with Fast Electrons
- Near-unity light absorption in a monolayer WS2 van der Waals heterostructure cavity
- Shaping, imaging and controlling plasmonic interference fields at buried interfaces
- Optical Modulation of Electron Beams in Free Space
- Attosecond electron microscopy by free-electron homodyne detection
- Strong interaction of slow electrons with near-field light visited from first principles
- Transverse Electron Beam Shaping with Light
- Electron Beam Aberration Correction Using Optical Near Fields
- Coherently amplified ultrafast imaging using a free-electron interferometer
- Free-electron interaction with nonlinear optical states in microresonators
- Complete Excitation of Discrete Quantum Systems by Single Free Electrons
- Spatiotemporal Electron-Beam Focusing through Parallel Interactions with Shaped Optical Fields
- Atomic Floquet physics revealed by free electrons