Optical Excitations with Electron Beams: Challenges and Opportunities
TL;DR: Free electron beams such as those employed in electron microscopes have evolved into powerful tools to investigate photonic nanostructures with an unrivaled combination of spatial and spectral preciseness as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Free electron beams such as those employed in electron microscopes have evolved into powerful tools to investigate photonic nanostructures with an unrivaled combination of spatial and spectral prec...
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TL;DR: There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one, which seems an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.
Abstract: There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.
Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …
33,785 citations
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28,685 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the quantum statistics effects of photons on free-electron-light interactions are observed, revealing a transition from quantum walk to classical random walk on the freeelectron energy ladder, and the electron walker serves as the probe in non-destructive quantum detection, measuring the second order photon-correlation g (2)(0) and higher order g ( n )(0).
Abstract: The interaction between free electrons and light stands at the base of both classical and quantum physics, with applications in free-electron acceleration, radiation sources, and electron microscopy. Yet, to this day, all experiments involving free-electron-light interactions are fully explained by describing the light as a classical wave. Here, we observe quantum statistics effects of photons on free-electron-light interactions. We demonstrate interactions passing continuously from Poissonian to super-Poissonian and up to thermal statistics, revealing a transition from quantum walk to classical random walk on the free-electron energy ladder. The electron walker serves as the probe in non-destructive quantum detection, measuring the second order photon-correlation g (2)(0) and higher-orders g ( n )(0). Unlike conventional quantum-optical detectors, the electron can perform both quantum weak measurements and projective measurements by evolving into an entangled joint-state with the photons. These findings inspire hitherto inaccessible concepts in quantum optics, including free-electron-based ultrafast quantum tomography of light.
55 citations
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TL;DR: There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one, which seems an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.
Abstract: There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.
Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …
33,785 citations
"Optical Excitations with Electron B..." refers background in this paper
...sor in eq A40 can be shown [250] to satisfy eq 3 (i....
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Journal Article•
28,685 citations
"Optical Excitations with Electron B..." refers methods in this paper
...A particularly challenging task is the production of X-ray photons with nanometer control, which recent studies have tackled following different strategies, such as through the simultaneous generation of polaritons in a nonlinear two-quanta emission process [238], or by an atomic-scale version of the Smith-Purcell effect using atomic planes in van der Waals materials as the periodic structure [239]....
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TL;DR: In this paper, a theoretical analysis of the shape of the 2s2p^{1}P resonance of He observed in the inelastic scattering of electrons is presented. But the analysis is restricted to the case of one discrete level with two or more continua and of a set of discrete levels with one continuum.
Abstract: The interference of a discrete autoionized state with a continuum gives rise to characteristically asymmetric peaks in excitation spectra. The earlier qualitative interpretation of this phenomenon is extended and revised. A theoretical formula is fitted to the shape of the $2s2p^{1}P$ resonance of He observed in the inelastic scattering of electrons. The fitting determines the parameters of the $2s2p^{1}P$ resonance as follows: $E=60.1$ ev, $\ensuremath{\Gamma}\ensuremath{\sim}0.04$ ev, $f\ensuremath{\sim}2 \mathrm{to} 4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$. The theory is extended to the interaction of one discrete level with two or more continua and of a set of discrete levels with one continuum. The theory can also give the position and intensity shifts produced in a Rydberg series of discrete levels by interaction with a level of another configuration. The connection with the nuclear theory of resonance scattering is indicated.
8,210 citations
TL;DR: This work introduced a method for optically imaging intracellular proteins at nanometer spatial resolution and used this method to image specific target proteins in thin sections of lysosomes and mitochondria and in fixed whole cells to image retroviral protein Gag at the plasma membrane.
Abstract: We introduce a method for optically imaging intracellular proteins at nanometer spatial resolution. Numerous sparse subsets of photoactivatable fluorescent protein molecules were activated, localized (to approximately 2 to 25 nanometers), and then bleached. The aggregate position information from all subsets was then assembled into a superresolution image. We used this method--termed photoactivated localization microscopy--to image specific target proteins in thin sections of lysosomes and mitochondria; in fixed whole cells, we imaged vinculin at focal adhesions, actin within a lamellipodium, and the distribution of the retroviral protein Gag at the plasma membrane.
7,924 citations