Relativistic approach to electromagnetic imaging

Abstract

A novel imaging principle based on the interaction of electromagnetic waves with a beam of relativistic electrons is proposed. Wave-particle interaction is assumed to take place in a small spatial domain, so that each electron is only briefly accelerated by the incident field. In the one-dimensional case the spatial distribution of the source density can be directly observed in the temporal spectrum of the scattered field. Whereas, in the two-dimensional case the relation between the source and the spectrum is shown to be approximately the Radon transform.