Optical emission from a high-refractive-index waveguide excited by a traveling electron beam

An optical emission scheme was demonstrated, in which a high-refractive-index waveguide is excited by a traveling electron beam in a vacuum environment. The waveguide was made of Si- SiO2 layers. The velocity of light propagating in the waveguide was slowed down to 1/3 of that in free space due to the high refractive index of Si. The light penetrated partly into the vacuum in the form of a surface wave. The electron beam was emitted from an electron gun and propagated along the surface of the waveguide. When the velocity of the electron coincided with that of the light, optical emission was observed. This emission is a type of Cherenkov radiation and is not conventional cathode luminescence from the waveguide materials because Si and SiO2 are transparent to light at the emitted wavelength. This type of emission was observed in an optical wavelength range from 1.2 to 1.6 μm with an electron acceleration voltage of 32-42 kV. The characteristics of the emitted light, such as the polarization direction and the relation between the acceleration voltage of the electron beam and the optical wavelength, coincided well with the theoretical results. The coherent length of an electron wave in the vacuum was confirmed to be equal to the electron spacing, as found by measuring the spectral profile of the emitted light. © 2008 American Institute of Physics