Erlangen 2022 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 31: Photonics I

Q 31.3: Talk

Wednesday, March 16, 2022, 11:00–11:15, Q-H15

Quantum-Coherent Light-Electron Interaction in an SEM — •Tomas Chlouba, Roy Shiloh, and Peter Hommelhoff — Physics Department, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Staudtstraße 1, 91058 Erlangen, Germany

The quantum-coherent interaction of light and free electrons was shown more than a decade ago in a transmission electron microscope in the form of photon-induced near-field microscopy (PINEM). A variety of scientific demonstrations followed including attosecond quantum coherent control, free electron quantum state generation and reconstruction, attosecond pulse generation and photon statistics reconstruction. A significant drawback of the PINEM technique so far was that it required a specifically modified transmission electron microscope (TEM), mainly because high-resolution spectrometers for scanning electron microscopes (SEM) are not available. Based on a home-built, compact magnetic high resolution electron spectrometer we show the quantum coherent coupling between electrons and light in an SEM, at unprecedentedly low, sub-relativistic energies down to 10.4 keV. These microscopes not only afford the yet-unexplored energies from ~0.5 to 30 keV providing the optimum electron-light coupling efficiency, but also offer spacious and easily-configurable experimental chambers for extended, cascaded optical set-ups, potentially boasting thousands of photon-electron interaction sites. The demonstration of PINEM in an SEM opens a new avenue of electron-photon quantum interactions unfeasible in TEMs.