Imaging Single Quantum Excitations by Light-Enhanced Electron Microscopy

Electron microscopy has long been key to revealing atomic-scale details in material science and reconstructing single biomolecules in life science. Research over the last decade harnessed the electron interaction with optical excitations for imaging stimulated wavepackets of plasmons and phonon-polaritons, relying on photon-induced nearfield electron-microscopy (PINEM) [1]. Subsequent methods (e.g., [2]) enabled imaging charge dynamics as well. Despite these advances, all current methods only access macroscopic numbers of excitations, whereas imaging individual excitations remains an open challenge.