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Femtosecond and Attosecond Phase-Space Correlations in Few-Particle Photoelectron Pulses

Rudolf Haindl, Valerio Di Giulio*, Armin Feist, and Claus Ropers†

  • *Contact author: valerio.digiulio@mpinat.mpg.de
  • †Contact author: claus.ropers@mpinat.mpg.de
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 165002 – Published 15 October, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/lylq-m63c

Abstract

Temporal correlations in pulsed electron beams reflect the microscopic dynamics of emission and interparticle interaction. In femtosecond electron emission from nanoscale field emitters, Coulomb interactions result in structured few-electron states with strong correlations in energy, time, and transverse momentum. Interactions with external fields may be used to both probe and further manipulate these correlated states. Here, we combine femtosecond-gated, event-based detection with inelastic electron-light scattering to directly map the photoelectron phase-space distribution of two-electron states. Our experiments demonstrate a bimodal structure in longitudinal phase space, with distinct contributions from interparticle interaction and dispersion. Moreover, we imprint a global phase modulation onto two-electron states and theoretically show that coherent shaping of few-electron phase-space distributions enables attosecond temporal correlations. This controlled phasing of few-electron states can be harnessed to produce tailored excitations and superradiance via two-electron energy postselection.

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Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

synopsis

Putting Few-Electron Pulses to Work

Published 15 October, 2025

Electrostatic repulsion between electrons usually impairs the performance of electron microscopes. Now it can be turned into an advantage.

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 165002– Published 15 October, 2025
  • Received 31 December 2024
  • Revised 2 June 2025
  • Accepted 28 July 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by the Max Planck Society.

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