Tilted Electron Pulses

We report the all-optical generation and characterization of tilted electron pulses by means of single-cycle terahertz radiation at an electron-transmitting mirror at slanted orientation. Femtosecond electron pulses with a chosen tilt angle are produced at an almost arbitrary target location. The experiments along with theory further reveal that the pulse front tilt in electron optics is directly connected to angular dispersion. Quantum mechanical considerations suggest that this relation is general for particle beams at any degree of coherence. These results indicate that ultrashort electron pulses can be shaped in space and time as versatilely as femtosecond laser pulses, but at 10⁵ times finer wavelength and subnanometer imaging resolution.