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X-ray phase-contrast imaging has recently led to a revolution in resolving power and tissue contrast in biomedical imaging, microscopy and materials science. The necessary high spatial coherence is currently provided by either large-scale…
The magnetic focusing of electrons has proven its utility in fundamental studies of electron transport. Here we report the direct imaging of magnetic focusing of electron waves, specifically in a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). We see…
Free-electron lasers (FELs) are the world's most brilliant light sources with rapidly evolving technological capabilities in terms of ultrabright and ultrashort pulses over a large range of accessible photon energies. Their revolutionary…
As charged particles surpass the speed of light in an optical medium they produce radiation - analogously to the way jet planes surpass the speed of sound and produce a sonic boom. This radiation emission, known as the Cherenkov effect, is…
Energy coupling during relativistically intense laser-matter interactions is encoded in the attosecond motion of strongly driven electrons at the pre-formed plasma-vacuum boundary. Studying and controlling this motion can reveal details…
We demonstrate that electrons can be efficiently accelerated to high energy in spatially non-uniform, intense laser fields. Laser non-uniformities occur when a perfect plane wave reflects off a randomly perturbed surface. By solving for…
The interaction of swift, free-space electrons with confined optical near fields has recently sparked much interest. It enables a new type of photon-induced near-field electron microscopy, mapping local optical near fields around…
Progress in optical techniques has made precision control of the phase profile in optical pulses common and accessible in scientific laboratories. Carefully shaping the field profile of a laser pulse can be used to master the dynamics of…
We introduce an approach for performing spectrally resolved electron microscopy without the need for an electron spectrometer. The method involves an electron beam prepared as a coherent superposition of multiple paths, one of which passes…
We describe optimized coherent control methods for two-photon transitions in atoms of a ladder-type three-state energy configuration. Our approach is based on the spatial coherent control scheme which utilizes counter-propagating ultrashort…
Laser guide stars with adaptive optics allow astronomical image correction in the absence of a natural guide star. Single guide star systems with a star created in the earth's sodium layer can be used to correct the wavefront in the near…
We present an all-optical detection approach to determine the position and spatial profile of an electron beam based on quantum properties of alkali metal atoms. To measure the electric field, produced by an electron beam, we excite thermal…
Light-pulse atom interferometers rely on the wave nature of matter and its manipulation with coherent laser pulses. They are used for precise gravimetry and inertial sensing as well as for accurate measurements of fundamental constants.…
We propose a scheme for constructing a phase plate for use in an ultrafast Zernike-type phase contrast electron microscope, based on the interaction of the electron beam with a strongly focused, high-power femtosecond laser pulse and a…
Atomic-scale disorder shapes the potential energy landscape traversed by photoexcited charge carriers, while the carriers themselves also dynamically reshape this landscape. However, resolving ultrafast photocarrier motion at atomic length…
First results on the experimental realisation of a 2x2 programmable phase plate for electrons are presented. The design consists of an array of electrostatic einzel lenses that influence the phase of electron waves passing through 4…
The interaction between free electrons and nanoscale optical fields has emerged as a unique platform to investigate ultrafast processes in matter and explore fundamental quantum phenomena. In particular, optically modulated electrons are…
The numerical analysis of the diffraction features rendered by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) typically relies either on classical approximations (Monte Carlo simulations) or quantum paraxial tomography (the multislice method and…
We present a comprehensive analysis of coherence properties of the radiation from X-ray free electron laser (XFEL). We consider practically important case when XFEL is optimized for maximum gain. Such an optimization allows to reduce…
Electrons travelling in free space have allowed to explore fundamental physics like the wave nature of matter, the Aharonov-Bohm and the Hanbury Brown-Twiss effect. Complementarily, the precise control over the external degrees of freedom…