RIKEN: pulse width significantly alters atom scattering
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- Yuya Morimoto of the RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics led a theoretical analysis showing that varying the pulse width of an electron wave packet significantly changes its scattering interaction strength with an atom — a finding the team called "a big surprise."
- Published in the New Journal of Physics (DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/ae0755), the work fills a gap where experimental advances — electron beams narrower than an atom and pulses on the order of attoseconds (10⁻¹⁸ s) — had outpaced existing theory.
- The conventional plane-wave approximation used in electron-microscope theory breaks down for the ultra-narrow beams produced by modern scanning transmission electron microscopes and for the ultra-short pulses created by manipulating electron beams with light.
- The team demonstrated two-way utility: electron beam properties can be used to control the electron-particle interaction, and conversely, the scattering interaction can be used to monitor the quantum state of the electron beam.
- Morimoto says the new control over interaction strength could be used to minimize protein damage in cryo-electron microscopy and to enhance efficiency in semiconductor manufacturing.
Why it matters: Morimoto says the newly mapped control over scattering strength could be used to minimize protein damage in cryo-electron microscopy and to boost efficiency in semiconductor manufacturing — turning a theoretical blind spot (where experiments were outpacing theory) into a practical handle for two major industries.
