Shaping Electron

Bunches at the
Femtosecond
Level (Ehberger, Ryabov et al. 2018)

Vasilii Iugov

1
Ultrafast 4D electron microscopy
• Pump-probe method: the sample
is hit with a laser pulse and then
probed by an electron beam with
adjustable delay
• Femtosecond temporal resolution
and nanometer spatial resolution
• Difficult to achieve the same
effective velocity of laser pulse
and probing beam along the
sample surface, especially at an
angle
(Zewail, Thomas 2009)
2
Tilting and compressing an electron bunch
• Transverse THz field deflects
electrons in the front and in the
back of the bunch in different
directions
• Longitudinal THz field
accelerates electrons in the back
and decelerates electrons in the
front

(Faure 2018)
3
Combining both effects
• A mirror is used in order to
create both transverse and
longitudinal electric fields
• Different degrees of tilt and
compression can be achieved by
changing mirror and pulse angles

(Faure 2018)

4
 Electron momentum bump

• are geometry factors():

e- e-

(Ehberger, Ryabov et al. 2018)

5
Geometry factors for different angles

- compression, - deflection, (E=70 keV, )

Dotted line – convenient region for experiment: weak deflection, constant compression
(Ehberger, Ryabov et al. 2018)

6
Temporal focus position
• At the temporal focus the electron bunch achieves maximal
compression
• If we approximate

the time it takes to reach the temporal focus is defined by

Thus,

and the position of the temporal focus is

7
Velocity matching condition
• If the phase difference of electrons and light
pulse is constant along the mirror, all of the
electrons in a given -slice get the same
momentum change
• Condition for this is that the superluminal
phase velocities of electrons and light pulse
along the mirror are equal:
e- e-

• If it is satisfied, the electron bunch doesn’t get

tilted
(Ehberger, Ryabov et al. 2018)
8
Geometry factors for different angles
At the velocity
matching point,
deflection is
identically zero!

- compression, - deflection, (E=70 keV, )

Dotted line – convenient region for experiment: weak deflection, constant compression
(Ehberger, Ryabov et al. 2018)

9
Away from velocity matching
• If we want to achieve tilting, we need to break the
velocity matching condition. For arbitrary angles,
the time mismatch at different positions is

• The tilt angle at the temporal focus is

(remember that ) e- e-

(Ehberger, Ryabov et al. 2018)

10
First experimental setup
• To measure tilt angle, additional

(Ehberger, Ryabov et al. 2018)

streaking pulse with the field
oscillating in the x direction,
providing additional varying
with arrival time
Scheme of the experiment, top and side views
• The tilted beam has z-y
correlation. Streaking introduces
z-x correlation so that we can
see x-y correlation on the screen
Screen images for different mirror angles
( is the velocity-matching angle)
11
Second experimental setup
• As the THz pulse delay is

(Ehberger, Ryabov et al. 2018)

changed, the beam position
oscillates with the amplitude

• This amplitude was measured as a

function of the delay for different
angles
• As in theory, at the velocity matching
angle
Vertical position of the beam as a function of
control field delay for different mirror angles
( is the velocity-matching angle)

12
Results
• Arrival time difference and
deflection amplitude were
measured
• Results were consistent with
formulas derived earlier, as can
be seen from the graphs

Measured arrival time difference (blue dots)

and deflection amplitude (red dots).
(Ehberger, Ryabov et al. 2018)

13
Potential applications
Allows for ultrafast pump-probe diffraction and microscopy with optical and e-
cycles at an angle, but still hitting the sample synchronously

(Ehberger, Ryabov et al. 2018)

• Subcycle electron • Subcycle low-energy • Subcycle electron
diffraction electron diffraction microscopy

14
Summary
• The same light beam used for producing the electron bunch can be
used to tilt and compress it
• To achieve this, the geometry must be fine-tuned so that the beam is
distorted in the right way
• It has possible applications in ultrafast 4D electron diffraction and
microscopy

15
References
• Ehberger, D., et al. (2018). "Tilted Electron Pulses." Physical Review
Letters 121(9) + supplemental materials
• Zewail, A. H. A. T., John M (2009). 4D Electron Microscopy.
• Jérôme Faure (2009). Viewpoint: Shaping Electron Bunches at the
Femtosecond Level

16