Field Emission Tip as a Nanometer Source of Free Electron Femtosecond Pulses

2005/07/26 by Peter Hommelhoff, Yvan R. P. Sortais, Yvan Sortais +2 · 3 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Electron Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Integrated Circuits and Semiconductor Failure Analysis #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.96.077401

published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 077401 (2006)

arxiv created 2005/07/26 · openalex publication_date 2006/02/21 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We report a source of free electron pulses based on a field emission tip irradiated by a low-power femtosecond laser. The electron pulses are shorter than 70 fs and originate from a tip with an emission area diameter down to 2 nm. Depending on the operating regime we observe either photofield emission or optical field emission with up to 200 electrons per pulse at a repetition rate of 1 GHz. This pulsed electron emitter, triggered by a femtosecond oscillator, could serve as an efficient source for time-resolved electron interferometry, for time-resolved nanometric imaging and for synchrotrons.

Cited by

• Energy Distribution Curves of Ultrafast Laser-Induced Field Emission and Their Implications for Electron Dynamics
• Ultrafast Electron Pulses from a Tungsten Tip Triggered by Low-Power Femtosecond Laser Pulses
• Laser-induced field emission from a tungsten tip: Optical control of emission sites and the emission process