The transmission electron microscope (TEM) can image molecular structures at the atomic scale by utilizing electrons rather of light, and has actually revolutionized products science and structural biology. The past decade has seen a lot of interest in combining electron microscopy with optical excitations, trying, for example, to manage and manipulate the electron beam by light. In the experiments performed by Ropers group, an electron beam was guided through the optical near field of a photonic circuit, to enable the electrons to engage with the improved light. The photonic chips were engineered by Kippenbergs group, built in such a method that the speed of light in the micro-ring resonators precisely matched the speed of the electrons, dramatically increasing the electron-photon interaction.
A ring resonator. Credit: Yujia Yan (EPFL).
The transmission electron microscopic lense (TEM) can image molecular structures at the atomic scale by using electrons instead of light, and has revolutionized materials science and structural biology. The previous decade has actually seen a great deal of interest in combining electron microscopy with optical excitations, attempting, for instance, to control the electron and control beam by light. However a major difficulty has been the rather weak interaction of propagating electrons with photons.
In a brand-new research study, researchers have actually successfully shown incredibly effective electron beam modulation utilizing incorporated photonic microresonators. The study was led by Professor Tobias J. Kippenberg at EPFL and by Professor Claus Ropers at limit Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry and the University of Göttingen, and is released in Nature.
The two labs formed an unconventional partnership, signing up with the usually inapplicable fields of electron microscopy and integrated photonics. Photonic incorporated circuits can direct light on a chip with ultra-low low losses, and improve optical fields using micro-ring resonators. In the experiments conducted by Ropers group, an electron beam was steered through the optical near field of a photonic circuit, to permit the electrons to communicate with the boosted light. The scientists then penetrated the interaction by measuring the energy of electrons that had actually soaked up or produced 10s to numerous photon energies. The photonic chips were engineered by Kippenbergs group, integrated in such a manner in which the speed of light in the micro-ring resonators precisely matched the speed of the electrons, drastically increasing the electron-photon interaction.
The speculative setup, revealing a transmission electron microscopic lense and silicon nitride microresonator used to demonstrate the electron-photon interaction. Credit: Murat Sivis.
The method allows a strong modulation of the electron beam, with only a couple of milli-Watts from a constant wave laser– a power level generated by a common laser guideline. The approach constitutes a significant simplification and efficiency boost in the optical control of electron beams, which can be flawlessly carried out in a routine transmission electron microscopic lense, and might make the scheme far more widely applicable.
” Integrated photonics circuits based on low-loss silicon nitride have made remarkable progress and are intensively driving the development of lots of emerging innovations and essential science such as Telecommunication, lidar, and quantum computing, and now show to be a new active ingredient for electron beam adjustment,” states Kippenberg.
” Interfacing electron microscopy with photonics has the potential to uniquely bridge atomic scale imaging with coherent spectroscopy,” includes Ropers. “For the future, we anticipate this to yield an unprecedented understanding and control of tiny optical excitations.”.
The researchers plan to even more extend their cooperation in the direction of brand-new types of quantum optics and attosecond metrology for complimentary electrons.
Reference: “Integrated photonics makes it possible for continuous-beam electron phase modulation” by Jan-Wilke Henke, Arslan Sajid Raja, Armin Feist, Guanhao Huang, Germaine Arend, Yujia Yang, F. Jasmin Kappert, Rui Ning Wang, Marcel Möller, Jiahe Pan, Junqiu Liu, Ofer Kfir, Claus Ropers and Tobias J. Kippenberg, 22 December 2021, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/ s41586-021-04197-5.
The silicon nitride samples were developed in the Center of MicroNanoTechnology (CMi) at EPFL. The experiments were performed at the Göttingen Ultrafast Transmission Electron Microscopy (UTEM) Lab.