Two letters from Erlangen in february issue of Nature Physics
Two letters from Erlangen physics groups have made it into the february issue of the journal Nature Physics. This is extremely exceptional as letter contributions are quite rarely in the highly renowned journal (total number of 6 in this issue). The contribution entitled “Quantum imaging with incoherently scattered light from a free-electron laser” from the “Joachim von Zanthier” group has been posted on our website already in November after its online publication. The work of Peter Hommelhoff, “Inelastic ponderomotive scattering of electrons at a high-intensity optical travelling wave in vacuum” reports on temporal control on free moving particles (electrons) with coherent (laser) light. This is based on the Kapitza–Dirac effect, which had been described theoretically in the 30s of the last century. Demonstration with several particles in transverse geometry was subsequently demonstrated. In the current work it is used to accelerate particles efficiently with light fields (as a classical ponderomotive acceleration at a co-propagating standing wave).