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Light is extensively used to steer the motion of atoms in free space, enabling cooling and trapping of matter waves through ponderomotive forces and Doppler-mediated photon scattering. Likewise, light interaction with free electrons has…
Nonlinear optical phenomena such as parametric amplification and frequency conversion are typically driven by external optical fields. Free electrons can also act as electromagnetic sources, offering unmatched spatial precision. Combining…
Controlling the wave function of free electrons is important to improve the spatial resolution of electron microscopes, the efficiency of electron interaction with sample modes of interest, and our ability to probe ultrafast materials…
When impinging on optical structures or passing in their vicinity, free electrons can spontaneously emit electromagnetic radiation, a phenomenon generally known as cathodoluminescence. Free-electron radiation comes in many guises:…
Manipulating the spin polarization of electron beams using light is highly desirable but exceedingly challenging, as the approaches proposed in previous studies using free-space light usually require enormous laser intensities. Here, we…
Electron energy loss spectroscopy is consolidating as a powerful tool to explore electronic (as well as vibrational) excitations of matter, including molecules. Performed in a scanning transmission electron microscope, this technique is…
Interfacing electrons and light enables ultrafast electron microscopy, quantum control of electrons, as well as new optical elements for high sensitivity imaging. Here we demonstrate for the first time programmable transverse electron beam…
The interaction between free electrons and optical near fields is attracting increasing attention as a way to manipulate the electron wave function in space, time, and energy. Relying on currently attainable experimental capabilities, we…
We theoretically demonstrate the ability of electron beams to probe the nonlinear photonic response with nanometer spatial resolution, well beyond the capabilities of existing optical techniques. Although the interaction of electron beams…
Since the birth of quantum optics, the measurement of quantum states of nonclassical light has been of tremendous importance for advancement in the field. To date, conventional detectors such as photomultipliers, avalanche photodiodes, and…
Probing optical excitations with high resolution is important for understanding their dynamics and controlling their interaction with other photonic elements. This can be done using state-of-the-art electron microscopes, which provide the…
Both classical and quantum waves can form vortices: with helical phase fronts and azimuthal current densities. These features determine the intrinsic orbital angular momentum carried by localized vortex states. In the past 25 years, optical…
Coherent control of ultrafast quantum phenomena benefits from pulse-shaping capabilities allowing to modulate the envelope and instantaneous phase of optical fields on femtosecond time scales. While such control is available for optical…
Optical anapoles are intriguing charge-current distributions characterized by a strong suppression of electromagnetic radiation. They originate from the destructive interference of the radiation produced by electric and toroidal multipoles.…
We provide a theoretical framework to describe the dynamics of a free-electron beam interacting with quantized bound systems in arbitrary electromagnetic environments. This expands the quantum optics toolbox to incorporate free-electron…
Entanglement of photons is a fundamental feature of quantum mechanics, which stands at the core of quantum technologies such as photonic quantum computing, communication, and sensing. An ongoing challenge in all these is finding an…
Ultrafast electron beams are essential for many applications, yet space-charge interactions in high-intensity beams lead to energy dissipation, coherence loss, and pulse broadening. Existing techniques mitigate these effects by using…
The quantum properties of matter and radiation can be leveraged to surpass classical limits of sensing and detection. Quantum optics does so by creating and measuring nonclassical light. However, better performance requires higher…
Coherent electrons such as those in electron microscopes, exhibit wave phenomena and may be described by the paraxial wave equation. In analogy to light-waves, governed by the same equation, these electrons share many of the fundamental…
Imaging dynamical processes at interfaces and on the nanoscale is of great importance throughout science and technology. While light-optical imaging techniques often cannot provide the necessary spatial resolution, electron-optical…