Attosecond electron pulses for 4D diffraction and microscopy

In this contribution, we consider the advancement of ultrafast electron diffraction and microscopy to cover the attosecond time domain. The concept is centered on the compression of femtosecond electron packets to trains of 15-attosecond pulses by the use of the ponderonnotive force in synthesized gratings of optical fields. Such attosecond electron pulses are significantly shorter than those achievable with extreme UV light sources near 25 nm (-50 eV) and have the potential for applications in the visualization of ultrafast electron dynamics, especially of atomic structures, clusters of atoms, and some materials.