Temporal magnification for streaked ultrafast electron diffraction and microscopy

Abstract

One of the frontiers of modern electron scattering instrumentation is improving temporal resolution in order to enable the observation of dynamical phenomena at their fundamental time-scales. We analyze how a radiofrequency cavity can be used as an electron longitudinal lens in order to produce a highly magnified temporal replica of an ultrafast process, and, in combination with a deflecting cavity, enable streaked electron images of optical-frequency phenomena. We present start-to-end simulations of an MeV electron beamline for two variations of this idea (a `magnifying-glass' and a `point-projection' configuration) showing the feasibility for an electron probe to achieve single shot 1.4 fs(rms) temporal resolution.