Optical gating and streaking of free-electrons with attosecond precision

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a proof-of-principle optical gating method for free electrons achieving 1.2 fs temporal resolution, promising attosecond precision for electron beam characterization and ultrafast experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a novel optical gating scheme using dielectric nano-gratings for free electrons with sub-optical cycle resolution.

Findings

Achieved 1.2 fs temporal resolution in experiments.

Potential for 10 as resolution in future implementations.

Applicable to laser-driven streak cameras and ultrafast electron experiments.

Abstract

In this paper we present proof of principle experiments of an optical gating concept for free electrons. We demonstrate a temporal resolution of 1.2+-0.3 fs via energy and transverse momentum modulation as a function of time. The scheme is based on the synchronous interaction between electrons and the near-field mode of a dielectric nano-grating excited by a femtosecond laser pulse with an optical period duration of 6.5 fs. The sub-optical cycle resolution demonstrated here is promising for use in laser-driven streak cameras for attosecond temporal characterization of bunched particle beams as well as time-resolved experiments with free-electron beams. We expect that 10 as temporal resolution will be achieved in the near future using such a scheme.