论文标题

通过塑造电子波袋来控制量子电动力学过程

Control of quantum electrodynamical processes by shaping electron wavepackets

论文作者

Wong, Liang Jie, Rivera, Nicholas, Murdia, Chitraang, Christensen, Thomas, Joannopoulos, John D., Soljačić, Marin, Kaminer, Ido

论文摘要

基本的量子电动力学(QED)过程,例如自发发射和电子 - 光子散射,包括大量现象,它们构成了现代科学和技术的基石之一。通常,QED和其他领域理论中的计算假设传入的颗粒是单摩梅氏菌状态。一致的叠加状态,即“形状的波袋”,可能会忽略基本散射过程的结果,而是假定在不断进取的动量中将其汇总到不连贯的(统计)分布中。在这里,我们表明自由电子波形可用于设计量子干扰,以改变QED中散射过程的结果。具体而言,在QED过程(例如光子发射)中两个或多个途径的干扰可以对该过程速率进行精确控制。例如,我们将概念应用于Bremsstrahlung,这是一种无处不在的现象,例如在X射线源中,用于最先进的医学成像,安全扫描,材料分析和天体物理学。我们表明,可以使用游离电子波形来定制发射光子的空间和光谱分布,增强其方向性和单色性,并增加更多的自由度,从而使Bremsstrahlung这样的发射过程更加通用。通过量子干扰来量身定制光子发射的时空属性的能力为整个电磁频谱塑造辐射的新自由度提供了新的自由度。更广泛地说,通过自由电子的塑造来量身定制一般QED过程的能力在电子显微镜中的光激发过程(例如,等离子体激励过程(例如等离子体和声子发射)的过程中,都开辟了新的控制途径,到在量子状态下的电子激光。

Fundamental quantum electrodynamical (QED) processes such as spontaneous emission and electron-photon scattering encompass a wealth of phenomena that form one of the cornerstones of modern science and technology. Conventionally, calculations in QED and in other field theories assume that incoming particles are single-momentum states. The possibility that coherent superposition states, i.e. "shaped wavepackets", will alter the result of fundamental scattering processes is thereby neglected, and is instead assumed to sum to an incoherent (statistical) distribution in the incoming momentum. Here, we show that free-electron wave-shaping can be used to engineer quantum interferences that alter the results of scattering processes in QED. Specifically, the interference of two or more pathways in a QED process (such as photon emission) enables precise control over the rate of that process. As an example, we apply our concept to Bremsstrahlung, a ubiquitous phenomenon that occurs, for instance, in X-ray sources for state-of-the-art medical imaging, security scanning, materials analysis, and astrophysics. We show that free electron wave-shaping can be used to tailor both the spatial and the spectral distribution of emitted photons, enhancing their directionality and monochromaticity, and adding more degrees of freedom that make emission processes like Bremsstrahlung more versatile. The ability to tailor the spatiotemporal attributes of photon emission via quantum interference provides a new degree of freedom in shaping radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. More broadly, the ability to tailor general QED processes through the shaping of free electrons opens up new avenues of control in processes ranging from optical excitation processes (e.g., plasmon and phonon emission) in electron microscopy to free electron lasing in the quantum regime.

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