Ultrashort electron pulse generation with single-femtosecond-level jitter

Ultrashort electron bunches with precise pump laser synchronization and adequate charge are fundamental for time-resolved techniques like ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) and advanced light sources. Here, we achieve electron chopping and compression through a single terahertz (THz)-driven device, producing 50-femtosecond, near-femtocoulomb (fC) electron pulses with 1.4-femtosecond arrival time jitter sustained over an hour. This achieves a 35-fold pulse duration reduction and 10-fold jitter improvement compared to cases without the THz device, marking the shortest directly measured pulse duration and smallest timing jitter reported for multielectron pulses (near-fC level) at the kilo-electron volt level. High-quality electron diffraction confirms this technique's suitability for UED. We further introduce a beam tilting correction via a tilted antenna, enabling bunch compression down to 6 femtoseconds. Furthermore, we have demonstrated its capability of reducing extended timing jitter from several hundred femtoseconds to the few-femtosecond level, offering a promising solution to the long-standing synchronization challenge between radio frequency accelerators and optical lasers. This advancement paves the way for jitter-free UED techniques with attosecond temporal resolution, thereby notably enhancing modern ultrafast applications.

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Publication Details

Journal
Science Advances
Published
2026-03-04
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aec0008
Primary Topic
Particle Accelerators and Free-Electron Lasers
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Ultrashort electron pulse generation with single-femtosecond-level jitter

He Xie, Dace Su, Jiaqi Zheng, Dongfang Zhang et al.
Science Advances
Particle Accelerators and Free-Electron Lasers
article

Ultrashort electron pulse generation with single-femtosecond-level jitter

He Xie, Dace Su, Jiaqi Zheng, Dongfang Zhang, Franz X. Kärtner
article en

Abstract

Ultrashort electron bunches with precise pump laser synchronization and adequate charge are fundamental for time-resolved techniques like ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) and advanced light sources. Here, we achieve electron chopping and compression through a single terahertz (THz)-driven device, producing 50-femtosecond, near-femtocoulomb (fC) electron pulses with 1.4-femtosecond arrival time jitter sustained over an hour. This achieves a 35-fold pulse duration reduction and 10-fold jitter improvement compared to cases without the THz device, marking the shortest directly measured pulse duration and smallest timing jitter reported for multielectron pulses (near-fC level) at the kilo-electron volt level. High-quality electron diffraction confirms this technique's suitability for UED. We further introduce a beam tilting correction via a tilted antenna, enabling bunch compression down to 6 femtoseconds. Furthermore, we have demonstrated its capability of reducing extended timing jitter from several hundred femtoseconds to the few-femtosecond level, offering a promising solution to the long-standing synchronization challenge between radio frequency accelerators and optical lasers. This advancement paves the way for jitter-free UED techniques with attosecond temporal resolution, thereby notably enhancing modern ultrafast applications.

Science AdvancesVol. 12(10)
Universität Hamburg (DE), Ministry of Education (TW), Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (DE)
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 36%
Particle Accelerators and Free-Electron Lasers
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