Quantum-coherent light-electron interaction in an SEM

Abstract: The last two decades experimentally affirmed the quantum nature of free electron wavepackets by the rapid development of transmission electron microscopes into ultrafast, quantum-coherent systems. In particular, ultrafast electron pulses can be generated and timed to interact with optical near-fields, yielding coherent exchange of the quantized photon energy between the relativistic electron wavepacket and the light field. So far, all experiments have been restricted to the physically-confining bounds of transmission electron microscopes, with their small, millimeter-sized sample chambers. In this work, we show the quantum coherent coupling between electrons and light in a scanning electron microscope, at unprecedentedly low electron energies down to 10.4 keV, so with sub-relativistic electrons. Scanning electron microscopes not only afford the yet-unexplored electron energies from ~0.5 to 30 keV providing optimum light-coupling efficiencies, but they also offer spacious and easily-configurable experimental chambers for extended and cascaded optical set-ups, potentially boasting thousands of photon-electron interaction zones. Our results unleashes the full potential of quantum experiments including electron wavepacket shaping and quantum computing with multiple arithmetic operations and will allow imaging with low-energy electrons and attosecond time resolution.