Lossless monochromation for electron microscopy with pulsed photoemission sources and rf cavities

Abstract

Resonant radiofrequency cavities enable exquisite time-energy control of electron beams when synchronized with laser driven photoemission. We present a lossless monochromator design that exploits this fine control in the one-electron-per-pulse regime. The theoretically achievable maximum beam current on target is orders of magnitude greater than state-of-the-art monochromators for the same spatial and energy resolution. This improvement is the result of monochromating in the time domain, unconstrained by the transverse brightness of the electron source. We show analytically and confirm numerically that cavity parameters chosen to minimize energy spread perform the additional function of undoing the appreciable effect of chromatic aberration in the upstream optics. We argue that our design has significant applications in both ultra-fast and non-time-resolved microscopy, provided photoelectron sources of sufficiently small size and laser sources of sufficiently high repetition rate. Our design achieves in simulations more than two orders of magnitude reduction in beam energy spread, down to single digit meV. Overcoming the minimum probe-size limit that chromatic aberration imposes, our design clears a path for high-current, high-resolution electron beam applications at primary energies from single to hundreds of keV.