Yang Yujia, Henke Jan-Wilke, Raja Arslan S, Kappert F Jasmin, Huang Guanhao, Arend Germaine, Qiu Zheru, Feist Armin, Wang Rui Ning, Tusnin Aleksandr, Tikan Alexey, Ropers Claus, Kippenberg Tobias J
Institute of Physics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Center for Quantum Science and Engineering, EPFL, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Science. 2024 Jan 12;383(6679):168-173. doi: 10.1126/science.adk2489. Epub 2024 Jan 11.
The short de Broglie wavelength and strong interaction empower free electrons to probe structures and excitations in materials and biomolecules. Recently, electron-photon interactions have enabled new optical manipulation schemes for electron beams. In this work, we demonstrate the interaction of electrons with nonlinear optical states inside a photonic chip-based microresonator. Optical parametric processes give rise to spatiotemporal pattern formation corresponding to coherent or incoherent optical frequency combs. We couple such "microcombs" to electron beams, demonstrate their fingerprints in the electron spectra, and achieve ultrafast temporal gating of the electron beam. Our work demonstrates the ability to access solitons inside an electron microscope and extends the use of microcombs to spatiotemporal control of electrons for imaging and spectroscopy.
短德布罗意波长和强相互作用使自由电子能够探测材料和生物分子中的结构与激发态。近来，电子 - 光子相互作用催生了用于电子束的新型光学操控方案。在本工作中，我们展示了电子与基于光子芯片的微谐振器内的非线性光学态之间的相互作用。光学参量过程会产生与相干或非相干光学频率梳相对应的时空图案形成。我们将此类“微梳”与电子束耦合，在电子能谱中展示其特征，并实现了电子束的超快时间选通。我们的工作展示了在电子显微镜内获取孤子的能力，并将微梳的应用扩展至对电子进行时空控制以用于成像和光谱分析。
