Electron microscopy of electromagnetic waveforms

Rapidly changing electromagnetic fields are the basis of almost any photonic or electronic device operation. We report how electron microscopy can measure collective carrier motion and fields with subcycle and subwavelength resolution. A collimated beam of femtosecond electron pulses passes through...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2016-07, Vol.353 (6297), p.374-377
Main Authors: Ryabov, A., Baum, P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Carriers
Devices
Electromagnetic fields
Electromagnetics
Electron microscopy
Electron pulses
Electrons
Excitation
Metamaterials
Scanning electron microscopy
Waveforms
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Summary:Rapidly changing electromagnetic fields are the basis of almost any photonic or electronic device operation. We report how electron microscopy can measure collective carrier motion and fields with subcycle and subwavelength resolution. A collimated beam of femtosecond electron pulses passes through a metamaterial resonator that is previously excited with a single-cycle electromagnetic pulse. If the probing electrons are shorter in duration than half a field cycle, then time-frozen Lorentz forces distort the images quasi-classically and with subcycle time resolution. A pump-probe sequence reveals in a movie the sample's oscillating electromagnetic field vectors with time, phase, amplitude, and polarization information. This waveform electron microscopy can be used to visualize electrodynamic phenomena in devices as small and fast as available.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.aaf8589