Novel Ultrafast Electron Diffraction System

Ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) has become an attractive technique to study the structural dynamics of materials on the sub-picosecond timescale, such as solid-liquid transitions. Researchers are demanding ever-shorter electron bunches in order to improve the resolution of their UED measurements. However producing intense sub-ps pulses of electrons in the desired energy range (30 - 100 keV) is challenging, due to space-charged induced longitudinal spreading. RadiaBeam, in collaboration with UCLA, proposes an innovative solution to increasing the temporal resolution of UED: by implementing a fast radiofrequency (RF) deflecting cavity immediately after the sample, the temporal profile of the diffraction pattern can be transformed into a transverse image. This method enables the use of longer, higher-charge pulses of electrons in the desired energy range, while obtaining a temporal resolution as fine as 100 fs.Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: Despite being a relatively recently developed technique, sub-ps ultrafast electron diffraction has already been used to produce ground-breaking scientific results in areas such as solid state phase transitions, surface dynamics, and gas phase reactions. The system we propose here, with improved resolution and signal-to-noise ratio, would enable even further breakthroughs in the understanding of ultrafast phenomena. It would be readily affordable by even small laboratories, with an estimated cost of less than $200k