Improved temporal resolution in ultrafast electron diffraction measurements through THz compression and time-stamping

作者：Mohamed A. K. Othman, Annika E. Gabriel, Emma Snively, M. Kozina, Xiaozhe Shen, Fuhao Ji, Samantha M. Lewis, Stephen Weathersby, Praful Vasireddy, Duan Luo, Xijie Wang, Matthias C. Hoffmann, Emilio A. Nanni · 发表于：Structural Dynamics · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1063/4.0000230 · 被引用次数：8 · 研究领域：Advanced Electron Microscopy Techniques and Applications、Terahertz technology and applications、Magnetic properties of thin films

We present an experimental demonstration of ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) with THz-driven electron bunch compression and time-stamping that enables UED probes with improved temporal resolution. Through THz-driven longitudinal bunch compression, a compression factor of approximately four is achieved. Moreover, the time-of-arrival jitter between the compressed electron bunch and a pump laser pulse is suppressed by a factor of three. Simultaneously, the THz interaction imparts a transverse spatiotemporal correlation on the electron distribution, which we utilize to further enhance the precision of time-resolved UED measurements. We use this technique to probe single-crystal gold nanofilms and reveal transient oscillations in the THz near fields with a temporal resolution down to 50 fs. These oscillations were previously beyond reach in the absence of THz compression and time-stamping.