Electron flashes for the nanoworld -- a new source of ultrashort electron pulses

Schematic of the experiment with metal needle (gray) and surface groove (yellow structure). In the experiments, the needle is illuminated with a 0.007 ps short light pulse and raster scanned across the nanostructure. The locally varying electron yield is monitored. Bottom: Electron image of the nano groove. The colored part of the image displays the local electron generation rate (bright: high yield), which allows for a determination of the profile and the local electromagnetic field strength of the nano groove. Credit: MBI