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Laser streaking of free electrons at 25 keV

Nature Photonics volume 8, pages 52–57 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Recording electronic motion in atomic systems requires attosecond and picometre resolutions. Current attosecond technology provides photon pulses up to an energy range of 100 eV, with wavelengths far too long to access structures on the atomic scale. In contrast, ultrashort free-electron pulses with sub-Ångstrom de Broglie wavelengths offer the potential to resolve sub-atomic structures. Here, we demonstrate an optical-field-driven streak camera for their temporal characterization. Our concept is to have an electron beam and a laser beam intersect at an ultrathin metal mirror, and potentially offers attosecond resolution. The technique will be instrumental in advancing ultrafast electron diffraction towards ever higher temporal resolution in the pursuit of the long-term goal of sub-atomic four-dimensional imaging. As a first application, we study the influence of electron–electron interactions on the characteristics of few-electron pulses.

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Figure 1: Concept for attosecond streaking of freely propagating electron pulses at 25 keV.
Figure 2: Streaking results.
Figure 3: Field dependence and electron pulse characterization.
Figure 4: Semi-classical simulations of free-electron streaking.
Figure 5: Multi-electron dynamics in freely propagating electron pulses.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank D. Frischke for producing aluminium films, V. Yakovlev for discussions about coherence and streaking simulations, and S. Lahme for support with error analysis. The authors acknowledge funding from the European Research Council, the Munich Centre of Advanced Photonics, and the Rudolf-Kaiser Foundation. F.O.K. and A.G. are supported by the International Max-Planck Research School for Advanced Photon Science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics, Hans-Kopfermann-Strasse 1, Garching, 85748, Germany

    F. O. Kirchner, A. Gliserin, F. Krausz & P. Baum

  2. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Am Coulombwall 1, Garching, 85748, Germany

    F. O. Kirchner, A. Gliserin, F. Krausz & P. Baum

Authors
  1. F. O. Kirchner
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  2. A. Gliserin
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  3. F. Krausz
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  4. P. Baum
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Contributions

P.B. and F.K. conceived the streaking concept and F.O.K. investigated its feasibility. A.G. conceived and constructed the beamline and energy analyser. F.O.K. constructed the streaking interaction region. A.G. carried out a preliminary experiment and F.O.K. the final experiment. A.G. evaluated the analyser's output into spectrograms and F.O.K. analysed that data further. P.B. performed the semiclassical simulations. All authors interpreted the results. F.O.K. and P.B. created the figures. All authors wrote the paper. The total contributions of F.O.K. and A.G. were comparable.

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Correspondence to P. Baum.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Kirchner, F., Gliserin, A., Krausz, F. et al. Laser streaking of free electrons at 25 keV. Nature Photon 8, 52–57 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2013.315

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