Abstract
In the last decade the efforts to combine the nanometer spatial resolution provided by electron microscopes and the femtosecond temporal resolution of ultrafast optical methods led to the emergence of ultrafast electron microscopy. The recent progress in the field shows that accelerated free electron waves can efficiently be manipulated in a coherent manner by optical fields into tailored quantum states.
Here we present theoretical simulations for such interactions. We introduce the concept of imprinting a specific phase and intensity profile from the optical fields in a vacuum onto the electron beam to generate a so-called electron vortex beam (EVB). Such EVBs have the potential to become a sensitive probing tool for imaging the near-field of chiral nanostructures. Further utilizing the techniques of light shaping, we show that chirped optical pulses can be used to compress the spectral bandwidth of an electron pulse. We discuss the possibility of coherent transfer of optical information mediated by free electrons and its utilization in coherent cathodoluminescence, the design of new specialized light sources and single-nanocrystal micro-spectroscopy.