Light well: a tunable free-electron light source on a chip

Phys Rev Lett. 2009 Sep 11;103(11):113901. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.113901. Epub 2009 Sep 9.

Abstract

The passage of a free-electron beam through a nanohole in a periodically layered metal-dielectric structure creates a new type of tunable, nanoscale radiation source--a "light well". In the reported demonstration, tunable light is generated at an intensity of approximately 200 W/cm(2) as electrons with energies in the 20-40 keV range are injected into gold-silica well structures with a lateral size of just a few hundred nanometers.