Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
https://hdl.handle.net/10356/164440
Title: | Quantum recoil in free-electron interactions with atomic lattices | Authors: | Huang, Sunchao Duan, Ruihuan Pramanik, Nikhil Herrin, Jason Scott Boothroyd, Chris Liu, Zheng Wong, Liang Jie |
Keywords: | Science::Physics::Atomic physics::Quantum theory Science::Physics::Optics and light |
Issue Date: | 2023 | Source: | 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 | Project: | NRF2020-NRF-ISF004-3525 A1984c0043 NRF-CRP22-2019-0007 NRF-CRP26-2021-0004 A2083c0052 |
Journal: | Nature Photonics | Abstract: | 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. | URI: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/164440 | ISSN: | 1749-4885 | DOI: | 10.1038/s41566-022-01132-6 | DOI (Related Dataset): | 10.21979/N9/ZGDIXL | Schools: | School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering School of Materials Science and Engineering |
Research Centres: | Earth Observatory of Singapore CNRS International NTU THALES Research Alliances Facility for Analysis, Characterisation, Testing and Simulation (FACTS) |
Rights: | © 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. | Fulltext Permission: | open | Fulltext Availability: | With Fulltext |
Appears in Collections: | EEE Journal Articles EOS Journal Articles MSE Journal Articles |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
---|---|---|---|---|
QuantumRecoil.pdf | 898.01 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open | |
SuppRecoil27July.pdf | 3.41 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
SCOPUSTM
Citations
20
23
Updated on Nov 9, 2024
Web of ScienceTM
Citations
50
3
Updated on Oct 26, 2023
Page view(s)
317
Updated on Nov 14, 2024
Download(s) 20
281
Updated on Nov 14, 2024
Google ScholarTM
Check
Altmetric
Items in DR-NTU are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.