Free-electron crystals for enhanced X-ray radiation.

Bremsstrahlung-the spontaneous emission of broadband radiation from free electrons that are deflected by atomic nuclei-contributes to the majority of X-rays emitted from X-ray tubes and used in applications ranging from medical imaging to semiconductor chip inspection. Here, we show that the bremsstrahlung intensity can be enhanced significantly-by more than three orders of magnitude-through shaping the electron wavefunction to periodically overlap with atoms in crystalline materials. Furthermore, we show how to shape the bremsstrahlung X-ray emission pattern into arbitrary angular emission profiles for purposes such as unidirectionality and multi-directionality. Importantly, we find that these enhancements and shaped emission profiles cannot be attributed solely to the spatial overlap between the electron probability distribution and the atomic centers, as predicted by the paraxial and non-recoil theory for free electron light emission. Our work highlights an unprecedented regime of free electron light emission where electron waveshaping provides multi-dimensional control over practical radiation processes like bremsstrahlung. Our results pave the way towards greater versatility in table-top X-ray sources and improved fundamental understanding of quantum electron-light interactions.

Efficient coupling between free electrons and the supermode of a silicon slot waveguide.

Laser light can modulate the kinetic energy spectrum of free electrons and induce extremely high acceleration gradients, which are instrumental to electron microscopy and electron acceleration, respectively. We present a design scheme for a silicon photonic slot waveguide which hosts a supermode to interact with free electrons. The efficiency of this interaction relies on the coupling strength per photon along the interaction length. We predict an optimum value of 0.4266, resulting in the maximum energy gain of 28.27 keV for an optical pulse energy of only 0.22 nJ and duration 1 ps. The acceleration gradient is 1.05 GeV/m, which is lower than the maximum imposed by the damage threshold of Si waveguides. Our scheme shows how the coupling efficiency and energy gain can be maximized without maximizing the acceleration gradient. It highlights the potential of silicon photonics technology in hosting electron-photon interactions with direct applications in free-electron acceleration, radiation sources, and quantum information science.

Free-electron interactions with van der Waals heterostructures: a source of focused X-ray radiation.

The science and technology of X-ray optics have come far, enabling the focusing of X-rays for applications in high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy, imaging, and irradiation. In spite of this, many forms of tailoring waves that had substantial impact on applications in the optical regime have remained out of reach in the X-ray regime. This disparity fundamentally arises from the tendency of refractive indices of all materials to approach unity at high frequencies, making X-ray-optical components such as lenses and mirrors much harder to create and often less efficient. Here, we propose a new concept for X-ray focusing based on inducing a curved wavefront into the X-ray generation process, resulting in the intrinsic focusing of X-ray waves. This concept can be seen as effectively integrating the optics to be part of the emission mechanism, thus bypassing the efficiency limits imposed by X-ray optical components, enabling the creation of nanobeams with nanoscale focal spot sizes and micrometer-scale focal lengths. Specifically, we implement this concept by designing aperiodic vdW heterostructures that shape X-rays when driven by free electrons. The parameters of the focused hotspot, such as lateral size and focal depth, are tunable as a function of an interlayer spacing chirp and electron energy. Looking forward, ongoing advances in the creation of many-layer vdW heterostructures open unprecedented horizons of focusing and arbitrary shaping of X-ray nanobeams.

Bulk-Plasmon-Mediated Free-Electron Radiation Beyond the Conventional Formation Time.

Free-electron radiation is a fundamental photon emission process that is induced by fast-moving electrons interacting with optical media. Historically, it has been understood that, just like any other photon emission process, free-electron radiation must be constrained within a finite time interval known as the "formation time," whose concept is applicable to both Cherenkov radiation and transition radiation, the two basic mechanisms describing radiation from a bulk medium and from an interface, respectively. Here, this work reveals an alternative mechanism of free-electron radiation far beyond the previously defined formation time. It occurs when a fast electron crosses the interface between vacuum and a plasmonic medium supporting bulk plasmons. While emitted continuously from the crossing point on the interface-thus consistent with the features of transition radiation-the extra radiation beyond the conventional formation time is supported by a long tail of bulk plasmons following the electron's trajectory deep into the plasmonic medium. Such a plasmonic tail mixes surface and bulk effects, and provides a sustained channel for electron-interface interaction. These results also settle the historical debate in Ferrell radiation, regarding whether it is a surface or bulk effect, from transition radiation or plasmonic oscillation.

Splashing transients of 2D plasmons launched by swift electrons.

Launching of plasmons by swift electrons has long been used in electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) to investigate the plasmonic properties of ultrathin, or two-dimensional (2D), electron systems. However, the question of how a swift electron generates plasmons in space and time has never been answered. We address this issue by calculating and demonstrating the spatial-temporal dynamics of 2D plasmon generation in graphene. We predict a jet-like rise of excessive charge concentration that delays the generation of 2D plasmons in EELS, exhibiting an analog to the hydrodynamic Rayleigh jet in a splashing phenomenon before the launching of ripples. The photon radiation, analogous to the splashing sound, accompanies the plasmon emission and can be understood as being shaken off by the Rayleigh jet-like charge concentration. Considering this newly revealed process, we argue that previous estimates on the yields of graphene plasmons in EELS need to be reevaluated.

Translation and Rotation of Transformation Media under Electromagnetic Pulse.

It is well known that optical media create artificial geometry for light, and curved geometry acts as an effective optical medium. This correspondence originates from the form invariance of Maxwell's equations, which recently has spawned a booming field called 'transformation optics'. Here we investigate responses of three transformation media under electromagnetic pulses, and find that pulse radiation can induce unbalanced net force on transformation media, which will cause translation and rotation of transformation media although their final momentum can still be zero. Therefore, the transformation media do not necessarily stay the same after an electromagnetic wave passes through.

Probing topological protection using a designer surface plasmon structure.

Topological photonic states, inspired by robust chiral edge states in topological insulators, have recently been demonstrated in a few photonic systems, including an array of coupled on-chip ring resonators at communication wavelengths. However, the intrinsic difference between electrons and photons determines that the 'topological protection' in time-reversal-invariant photonic systems does not share the same robustness as its counterpart in electronic topological insulators. Here in a designer surface plasmon platform consisting of tunable metallic sub-wavelength structures, we construct photonic topological edge states and probe their robustness against a variety of defect classes, including some common time-reversal-invariant photonic defects that can break the topological protection, but do not exist in electronic topological insulators. This is also an experimental realization of anomalous Floquet topological edge states, whose topological phase cannot be predicted by the usual Chern number topological invariants.

Electromagnetic detection of a perfect carpet cloak.

It has been shown that a spherical invisibility cloak originally proposed by Pendry et al. can be electromagnetically detected by shooting a charged particle through it, whose underlying mechanism stems from the asymmetry of transformation optics applied to motions of photons and charges [PRL 103, 243901 (2009)]. However, the conceptual three-dimensional invisibility cloak that exactly follows specifications of transformation optics is formidably difficult to implement, while the simplified cylindrical cloak that has been experimentally realized is inherently visible. On the other hand, the recent carpet cloak model has acquired remarkable experimental development, including a recently demonstrated full-parameter carpet cloak without any approximation in the required constitutive parameters. In this paper, we numerically investigate the electromagnetic radiation from a charged particle passing through a perfect carpet cloak and propose an experimentally verifiable model to demonstrate symmetry breaking of transformation optics.

Topological acoustics.

The manipulation of acoustic wave propagation in fluids has numerous applications, including some in everyday life. Acoustic technologies frequently develop in tandem with optics, using shared concepts such as waveguiding and metamedia. It is thus noteworthy that an entirely novel class of electromagnetic waves, known as "topological edge states," has recently been demonstrated. These are inspired by the electronic edge states occurring in topological insulators, and possess a striking and technologically promising property: the ability to travel in a single direction along a surface without backscattering, regardless of the existence of defects or disorder. Here, we develop an analogous theory of topological fluid acoustics, and propose a scheme for realizing topological edge states in an acoustic structure containing circulating fluids. The phenomenon of disorder-free one-way sound propagation, which does not occur in ordinary acoustic devices, may have novel applications for acoustic isolators, modulators, and transducers.

Dispersion-tunable designer-plasmonic resonator with enhanced high-order resonances.

We propose and experimentally demonstrate an approach to efficiently tune the dispersion of a designer-plasmonic resonator, or a plasmonic 'meta-atom', by incorporating an extra ground plane underneath. We demonstrate that this ground plane is able to enhance resonances, and the enhancing effect can render those higher-order azimuthal modes, being absent in previously reported designer-plasmonic resonators, experimentally observable. After incorporating the ground plane, all resonance modes are red shifted with their Q factors enhanced. By increasing the separation from the planar resonator to the underneath ground plane, all enhanced modes are blue shifted with Q factors decreased slightly, whose trend is opposite to increasing the thickness of a dielectric substrate of a common meta-atom without a ground. These results may find potential applications in tunable designer-plasmonic sensors and plasmonic metamaterial designs.

Ultrathin three-dimensional thermal cloak.

We report the first experimental realization of a three-dimensional thermal cloak shielding an air bubble in a bulk metal without disturbing the external conductive thermal flux. The cloak is made of a thin layer of homogeneous and isotropic material with specially designed three-dimensional manufacturing. The cloak's thickness is 100 µm while the cloaked air bubble has a diameter of 1 cm, achieving the ratio between dimensions of the cloak and the cloaked object 2 orders smaller than previous thermal cloaks, which were mainly realized in a two-dimensional geometry. This work can find applications in novel thermal devices in the three-dimensional physical space.