Publication date: 8th June 2021
In this seminar, we review recent experimental developments in reshaping the wavefunction of free particles. In particular, the possibility to maniupulate free electrons to generate attosecond or even zeptosecond pulses as well as attosecond-controlled vortex electron beams will be discussed. These advanced electron beams can enable new microscopy techniques having ultra-high time resolution in diffraction or spectroscopy. Recently, it has been shown that it is possible to map the structural dynamics of solids, or to characterize and control plasmonic fields in nanostructures at the attosecond/nanometer scale or to probe the local magnetization dynamics. More recently, a discussion emerged on using prepared electron packets to unveil new phenomena in nuclear physics. We will depict the state of the art in this field and show that the coherent control of both the transverse and longitudinal wave function of individual electrons can have applications in controlling nuclear excitations of long lived isomers.