Quantum Effects In Imaging Nano-Structures Using Photon-Induced Near-Field Electron Microscopy

Naglaa Etman; Afaf M A Said; Khaled S R Atia; Reem Sultan; Mohamed Farhat O Hameed; Muhamed Amin; S S A Obayya

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-42624-w

Quantum Effects In Imaging Nano-Structures Using Photon-Induced Near-Field Electron Microscopy

Sci Rep. 2019 Apr 16;9(1):6139. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-42624-w.

Authors

Naglaa Etman^{1

2}, Afaf M A Said¹, Khaled S R Atia^{1

3}, Reem Sultan², Mohamed Farhat O Hameed^{4

5

6}, Muhamed Amin^{7

8}, S S A Obayya^{9

10}

Affiliations

¹ Center for Photonics and Smart Materials, Zewail City of Science and Technology, October Gardens, Giza, 12578, Egypt.
² Electronics and Communications Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, Mansoura, 35516, Egypt.
³ Advanced Research Complex, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada.
⁴ Center for Photonics and Smart Materials, Zewail City of Science and Technology, October Gardens, Giza, 12578, Egypt. mfarahat@zewailcity.edu.eg.
⁵ Nanotechnolgy Engineering Program, University of Science and Technology, Zewail City of Science and Technology, October Gardens, Giza, 12578, Egypt. mfarahat@zewailcity.edu.eg.
⁶ Mathematics and Engineering Physics Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, Mansoura, 35516, Egypt. mfarahat@zewailcity.edu.eg.
⁷ Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607, Hamburg, Germany. muhamed.amin@cfel.de.
⁸ Department of Sciences, University College Groningen, Hoendiepskade 23/24, 9718, BG Groningen, Netherlands. muhamed.amin@cfel.de.
⁹ Center for Photonics and Smart Materials, Zewail City of Science and Technology, October Gardens, Giza, 12578, Egypt. sobayya@zewailcity.edu.eg.
¹⁰ Electronics and Communications Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, Mansoura, 35516, Egypt. sobayya@zewailcity.edu.eg.

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce the quantum mechanical approach as a more physically-realistic model to accurately quantify the electron-photon interaction in Photon-induced near-field electron microscopy (PINEM). Further, we compare the maximum coupling speed between the electrons and the photons in the quantum and classical regime. For a nanosphere of radius 2.13 nm, full quantum calculations show that the maximum coupling between photon and electron occurs at a slower speed than classical calculations report. In addition, a significant reduction in PINEM field intensity is observed for the full quantum model. Furthermore, we discuss the size limitation for particles imaged using the PIMEN technique and the role of the background material in improving the PINEM intensity. We further report a significant reduction in PINEM intensity in nearly touching plasmonic particles (0.3 nm gap) due to tunneling effect.