Electron-Photon Interactions in a Scanning Electron Microscope

In this work, we describe a testbed for studying free-electron photon interactions in a 1 to 20-keV scanning electron microscope. The setup includes an ultrafast emitter, optical modulators for structuring the electron beam, a nanostructured interaction zone, and electron and optical spectrometers with time-tagging electronics to characterize these interactions. Through this work we aim to understand these interactions at electron energies orders-of-magnitude lower than used in most previous work, enabling their more widespread adoption and potentially leading to chip-scale technologies.