Quantum recoil in free-electron interactions with atomic lattices
The emission of light from charged particles underlies a wealth of scientific phenomena and technological applications. Classical theory determines the emitted photon energy by assuming an undeflected charged particle trajectory. In 1940, Ginzburg pointed out that this assumption breaks down in qua...
| Үндсэн зохиолчид: | , , , , , , |
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| Формат: | Journal Article |
| Хэл сонгох: | English |
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2023
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| Онлайн хандалт: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/164440 |
| _version_ | 1826111090926288896 |
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| author | Huang, Sunchao Duan, Ruihuan Pramanik, Nikhil Herrin, Jason Scott Boothroyd, Chris Liu, Zheng Wong, Liang Jie |
| author2 | School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering |
| author_facet | School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Huang, Sunchao Duan, Ruihuan Pramanik, Nikhil Herrin, Jason Scott Boothroyd, Chris Liu, Zheng Wong, Liang Jie |
| author_sort | Huang, Sunchao |
| collection | NTU |
| description | The emission of light from charged particles underlies a wealth of scientific phenomena and technological applications. Classical theory determines
the emitted photon energy by assuming an undeflected charged particle trajectory. In 1940, Ginzburg pointed out that this assumption breaks down in quantum electrodynamics, resulting in shifts—known as quantum recoil— in outgoing photon energies from their classically predicted values. Since then, quantum recoil in free-electron light-emission processes, including Cherenkov radiation and Smith–Purcell radiation, has been well-studied in theory, but an experimental demonstration has remained elusive. Here we present an experimental demonstration of quantum recoil, showing that this quantum electrodynamical effect is not only observable at room temperature but also robust in the presence of other electron-scattering mechanisms.
By scattering free electrons off the periodic two-dimensional atomic sheets of van der Waals materials in a tabletop platform, we show that the X-ray photon energy is accurately predicted only by quantum recoil theory. We show that quantum recoil can be enormous, to the point that a classically predicted X-ray photon is emitted as an extremely low-energy photon. We envisage quantum recoil as a means of precision control over outgoing photon and electron spectra, and show that quantum recoil can be tailored through a host of parameters: the electron energy, the atomic composition and the tilt angle of the van der Waals material. Our results pave the way to tabletop, room-temperature platforms for harnessing and investigating qua- ntum electrodynamical effects in electron–photon interactions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T02:45:14Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/164440 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T02:45:14Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1644402023-01-28T23:32:14Z Quantum recoil in free-electron interactions with atomic lattices Huang, Sunchao Duan, Ruihuan Pramanik, Nikhil Herrin, Jason Scott Boothroyd, Chris Liu, Zheng Wong, Liang Jie School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering School of Materials Science and Engineering Earth Observatory of Singapore CNRS International NTU THALES Research Alliances Facility for Analysis, Characterisation, Testing and Simulation (FACTS) Science::Physics::Atomic physics::Quantum theory Science::Physics::Optics and light X-Rays Nanophotonics The emission of light from charged particles underlies a wealth of scientific phenomena and technological applications. Classical theory determines the emitted photon energy by assuming an undeflected charged particle trajectory. In 1940, Ginzburg pointed out that this assumption breaks down in quantum electrodynamics, resulting in shifts—known as quantum recoil— in outgoing photon energies from their classically predicted values. Since then, quantum recoil in free-electron light-emission processes, including Cherenkov radiation and Smith–Purcell radiation, has been well-studied in theory, but an experimental demonstration has remained elusive. Here we present an experimental demonstration of quantum recoil, showing that this quantum electrodynamical effect is not only observable at room temperature but also robust in the presence of other electron-scattering mechanisms. By scattering free electrons off the periodic two-dimensional atomic sheets of van der Waals materials in a tabletop platform, we show that the X-ray photon energy is accurately predicted only by quantum recoil theory. We show that quantum recoil can be enormous, to the point that a classically predicted X-ray photon is emitted as an extremely low-energy photon. We envisage quantum recoil as a means of precision control over outgoing photon and electron spectra, and show that quantum recoil can be tailored through a host of parameters: the electron energy, the atomic composition and the tilt angle of the van der Waals material. Our results pave the way to tabletop, room-temperature platforms for harnessing and investigating qua- ntum electrodynamical effects in electron–photon interactions. Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) National Research Foundation (NRF) Submitted/Accepted version This project was partially supported by the National Research Foundation (Project ID NRF2020-NRF-ISF004-3525) and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Science & Engineering Research Council (Grant No. A1984c0043). We acknowledge the Facility for Analysis, Characterisation, Testing and Simulation, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, for use of their electron microscopy/X-ray facilities. Z.L. acknowledges the support from National Research Foundation, Singapore, under its Competitive Research Programme (CRP) (NRF-CRP22-2019-0007 and NRF-CRP26-2021-0004). This research is also supported by A*STAR under its AME IRG Grant (Project No. A2083c0052). L.J.W. acknowledges the Nanyang Assistant Professorship Start-up Grant. 2023-01-26T04:33:57Z 2023-01-26T04:33:57Z 2023 Journal Article Huang, S., Duan, R., Pramanik, N., Herrin, J. S., Boothroyd, C., Liu, Z. & Wong, L. J. (2023). Quantum recoil in free-electron interactions with atomic lattices. Nature Photonics. https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-01132-6 1749-4885 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/164440 10.1038/s41566-022-01132-6 en NRF2020-NRF-ISF004-3525 A1984c0043 NRF-CRP22-2019-0007 NRF-CRP26-2021-0004 A2083c0052 Nature Photonics 10.21979/N9/ZGDIXL © 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. All rights reserved. This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-01132-6. application/pdf application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Science::Physics::Atomic physics::Quantum theory Science::Physics::Optics and light X-Rays Nanophotonics Huang, Sunchao Duan, Ruihuan Pramanik, Nikhil Herrin, Jason Scott Boothroyd, Chris Liu, Zheng Wong, Liang Jie Quantum recoil in free-electron interactions with atomic lattices |
| title | Quantum recoil in free-electron interactions with atomic lattices |
| title_full | Quantum recoil in free-electron interactions with atomic lattices |
| title_fullStr | Quantum recoil in free-electron interactions with atomic lattices |
| title_full_unstemmed | Quantum recoil in free-electron interactions with atomic lattices |
| title_short | Quantum recoil in free-electron interactions with atomic lattices |
| title_sort | quantum recoil in free electron interactions with atomic lattices |
| topic | Science::Physics::Atomic physics::Quantum theory Science::Physics::Optics and light X-Rays Nanophotonics |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/164440 |
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