Terahertz Compression of Electron Pulses at a Planar Mirror Membrane

Seeing atoms and electrons in motion via ultrafast electron diffraction or microscopy requires electron pulses a few femtoseconds in duration, or shorter. The authors demonstrate terahertz-based electron compression with a simple planar mirror, yielding pulse lengths of less than 30 fs. Furthermore, this approach could potentially deliver isolated $a{{0}{0ex}}t{{0}{0ex}}t{{0}{0ex}}o{{0}{0ex}}s{{0}{0ex}}e{{0}{0ex}}c{{0}{0ex}}o{{0}{0ex}}n{{0}{0ex}}d$ pulses of electrons.