We propose a new paradigm for the synthesis of new materials consisting in modifying the motion of valence and conduction electrons in atomically thin materials through the image interaction with neutral structures placed in their vicinity.
We introduce a radically different approach to material engineering relying on the self-interaction that electrons in a two-dimensional material experience when an electrically neutral structure is placed in its vicinity. Based on rigorous theoretical methods, we predict strong modifications in the optical, electrical, and thermal properties of a monolayer semiconductor as a disruptive approach to tailor the properties of atomic layers for application in nanodevices, which can also be applied to other types of materials to control their properties with great flexibility.
Light is routinely used to steer the motion of atoms in free space, enabling cooling and trapping of matter waves through ponderomotive interaction and Doppler-mediated photon scattering. In parallel, optical interaction with free electrons has recently emerged as a powerful way to modulate the electron wave function for applications in ultrafast electron microscopy. Here, we combine these two worlds by theoretically demonstrating that matter waves can be optically manipulated by inelastic interaction with optical fields, allowing us to modulate the translational wave function and produce temporally and spatially compressed atomic beam pulses.
KEYWORDS: Near field optics, Modulation, Charged particle optics, Near field, Electron microscopy, Ultrafast phenomena, Transmission electron microscopy, Spectral resolution, Spatial resolution, Quantum optics
We explore the role that the electron wave function plays in cathodoluminescence (CL) emission when an external laser pulse is synchronized with the electron probe at the sample. We show that the the far-field emission is composed by coherent and incoherent contributions where the latter can only be modified by changing the electron density profile. In particular, shaped electrons lead to a partial suppression of the CL signal while its complete cancellation can be only achieved in the point-particle limit. We believe that our results open new routes toward coherent control of optical excitations at the atomic scale as well as toward a new method of studying ultrafast phenomena with a time resolution only limited by the width of the spectral window in the CL measurement.
KEYWORDS: Near field optics, Molecules, Molecular photonics, Chemical species, Photons, Photonic microstructures, Near field, Molecular spectroscopy, Molecular lasers, Electron microscopy
We theoretically reveal novel quantum effects in the interaction between free electrons and optically illuminated multilevel atomic systems. Specifically, we show that the resulting electron energy-loss spectra are radically altered in the presence of intense laser irradiation, giving rise to transition energy shifts and new loss features associated with the combined action of photon and electron exchanges with the atomic system, in analogy to Raman scattering. Besides their fundamental interest, our results provide the basis for a new form of spectrally resolved microscopy in which the external illumination is used to enhance the spectral resolution and strength of electron-atom interactions.
KEYWORDS: Electron beams, Near field optics, Quantum optics, Signal attenuation, Light sources, Electron microscopes, Signal analyzers, Optical filters, Polarization, Spectroscopy
We investigate changes in the electron energy-loss spectra triggered by electron scattering by an optical mode depending on mode statistics (bosons vs fermions) and population (coherent, Fock states, and thermal).
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