Dr. Zhexin Zhao : Control free-electron—light interaction for nanophotonic particle accelerators and quantum applications.

The  interaction between light and free electrons not only provides a promising pathway toward the miniaturization of electron accelerators, but also enables rich quantum effects that can drive frontier applications such as quantum sensing and quantum light sources  with high spatial and temporal resolution. This talk presents several projects by the speaker and collaborators at this interdisciplinary area: In the field of nanophotonic electron accelerators, a photonic-crystal-based multi-channel electron accelerator  is proposed, enabling an increase in accelerating current. An optical beat-note–based method for compressing electron pulses is introduced, which can improve the efficiency and temporal resolution of ultrafast electron pulse compression. In the quantum application  of optically modulated free electrons, a quantum model describing the interaction between optically modulated free electrons and bound electrons is developed, and an upper bound on the free-electron–photon coupling strength is derived, providing theoretical  support and design guidelines for free-electron–based quantum sensing and quantum light source applications.