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Light Well: A Tunable Free-Electron Light Source on a Chip

G. Adamo, K. F. MacDonald, Y. H. Fu, C-M. Wang, D. P. Tsai, F. J. García de Abajo, and N. I. Zheludev
Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 113901 – Published 9 September 2009
Physics logo See Synopsis: Drilling for tunable photons in a nanohole

Abstract

The passage of a free-electron beam through a nanohole in a periodically layered metal-dielectric structure creates a new type of tunable, nanoscale radiation source—a “light well”. In the reported demonstration, tunable light is generated at an intensity of 200W/cm2 as electrons with energies in the 20–40 keV range are injected into gold-silica well structures with a lateral size of just a few hundred nanometers.

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  • Received 7 July 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.113901

©2009 American Physical Society

Synopsis

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Drilling for tunable photons in a nanohole

Published 21 September 2009

The demonstration of photon emission as free-electrons pass through a nanoscale grating could pave the way for a new generation of on-chip tunable light sources.

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Authors & Affiliations

G. Adamo1, K. F. MacDonald1,*, Y. H. Fu2, C-M. Wang2, D. P. Tsai2, F. J. García de Abajo3, and N. I. Zheludev1

  • 1Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
  • 2Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan, Republic of China
  • 3Instituto de Óptica - CSIC, Serrano 121, 28006 Madrid, Spain

  • *kfm@orc.soton.ac.uk; http://www.nanophotonics.org.uk/niz

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Issue

Vol. 103, Iss. 11 — 11 September 2009

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