Sub-fs electron pulses for ultrafast electron diffraction

Abstract

We present a new concept for an electron gun generating subrelativistic electron pulses with a duration down to the attosecond range. It is based on a cylindrical RF cavity (a so-called pill-box cavity) oscillating in its TM <inf>010</inf> eigenmode with a photocathode triggered by a fs-laser pulse. Injecting electrons at an appropriate phase of the RF cycle compensates for their initial velocities and time delays and makes the electrons arrive at a target in a sub-fs temporal window. Such electron pulses will allow nuclear motion and electronic dynamics to be studied on an attosecond time scale. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.