Graphene Metamaterials for Intense, Tunable, and Compact Extreme Ultraviolet and X‐Ray Sources

Abstract

The interaction of electrons with strong electromagnetic fields is fundamental to the ability to design high‐quality radiation sources. At the core of all such sources is a tradeoff between compactness and higher output radiation intensities. Conventional photonic devices are limited in size by their operating wavelength, which helps compactness at the cost of a small interaction area. Here, plasmonic modes supported by multilayer graphene metamaterials are shown to provide a larger interaction area with the electron beam, while also tapping into the extreme confinement of graphene plasmons to generate high‐frequency photons with relatively low‐energy electrons available from tabletop sources. For 5 MeV electrons, a metamaterial of 50 layers and length 50 µm, and a beam current of 1.7 µA, it is, for instance, possible to generate X‐rays of intensity 1.5 × 107 photons sr−1 s−1 1%BW, 580 times more than for a single‐layer design. The frequency of the driving laser dynamically tunes the photon emission spectrum. This work demonstrates a unique free‐electron light source, wherein the electron mean free path in a given material is longer than the device length, relaxing the requirements of complex electron beam systems and potentially paving the way to high‐yield, compact, and tunable X‐ray sources.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Oct 02, 2019
Source ID
10.1002/advs.201901609

Entities

People

  • Andrea Pizzi
  • Gilles Rosolen
  • Ido Kaminer
  • Liang Jie Wong
  • Marin Soljačić
  • Rasmus Ischebeck
  • Thomas Feurer

Organizations

  • Army Research Office
  • Innovis
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Nanyang Technological University
  • National Fund for Scientific Research
  • Paul Scherrer Institute
  • Science and Engineering Research Council
  • Swiss National Science Foundation
  • Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
  • United States – Israel Binational Science Foundation
  • University of Bern
  • University of Cambridge
  • University of Mons

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Electrical Engineering
  • Nanoscale Plasmonic Nanotechnology
  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Graphene