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.
19 pages, 9 figures, 77 references
References in corpus (14)
- 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
- Highly confined low-loss plasmons in graphene-boron nitride heterostructures
- Attosecond Electron Pulse Trains and Quantum State Reconstruction in Ultrafast Transmission Electron Microscopy
- Electron Beam Spectroscopy for Nanophotonics
- Ponderomotive generation and detection of attosecond free-electron pulse trains
- Plasmonics in Atomically-Thin Crystalline Silver Films
- Optical Modulation of Electron Beams in Free Space
- Attosecond electron microscopy by free-electron homodyne detection
- 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
- Spatiotemporal Electron-Beam Focusing through Parallel Interactions with Shaped Optical Fields