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Microscopy

Quantum control of free electrons

Nature volume 521, pages 166–167 (2015)Cite this article

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Optical pulses have previously been used to place the electrons in the beam of an electron microscope into well-defined energy states. These electrons can now be put in a quantum superposition of those states. See Letter p.200

Quantum mechanics is a daily affair for electron microscopists. The researchers routinely focus their microscopes' electron beams on samples to create quantum interference patterns that reveal information about the samples' atomic and molecular structure. In an exciting paper in this issue, Feist et al.1 (page 200) demonstrate how they have used light focused on a nanostructure to make the fast electrons of one such electron beam exhibit another type of quantum behaviour — Rabi oscillations.

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Figure 1: Quantum superpositions.

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References

  1. Feist, A. et al. Nature 521, 200–203 (2015).

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  2. Barwick, B., Flannigan, D. J. & Zewail, A. H. Nature 462, 902–906 (2009).

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  1. Mathieu Kociak is at the Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, CNRS/Université Paris Sud, 91400 Orsay, France.,

    Mathieu Kociak

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  1. Mathieu Kociak
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Correspondence to Mathieu Kociak.

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Kociak, M. Quantum control of free electrons. Nature 521, 166–167 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/521166a

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