{
  "abstract": "Coherent optical modulation of free-electron wavepackets offers a route to ultrafast beam steering, energy exchange, temporal compression, and quantum-state shaping. Recent advances in photon-induced near-field electron microscopy (PINEM), ultrafast Kapitza-Dirac effect (KDE) and dielectric laser acceleration (DLA) have demonstrated strong light-electron coupling, but longitudinal energy modulation, transverse momentum transfer, and wavepacket-dependent diffraction are still commonly described with separate models. Here, we develop a unified Light-Electron Modulation (LEM) framework that treats optical near fields as programmable phase modulators for free-electron wavepackets. Within this framework, we identify longitudinal and transverse modulation channels, analogous to electro-optic phase modulation and acousto-optic diffraction of light, respectively, and show how their operation depends on wavepacket extent, recoil, phase matching, and optical-field geometry. This formulation organizes PINEM, Raman-Nath and Bragg diffraction, DLA-like acceleration, and anomalous PINEM as limiting regimes of a common modulation picture. The resulting framework provides design principles for free-electron modulators that can control energy spectra, temporal density, transverse wavefronts, and electron-photon quantum interfaces, establishing LEM as a device-level platform for programmable femtosecond-to-attosecond matter-wave control.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2610.36182",
  "author_total": 10,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Zirui Zhao"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ruoyu Chen"
    },
    {
      "name": "Changying Li"
    },
    {
      "name": "Yongcheng Ding"
    },
    {
      "name": "Zhaopin Chen"
    },
    {
      "name": "Xinbing Song"
    },
    {
      "name": "Shuaishuai Sun"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ye Tian"
    },
    {
      "name": "Kangpeng Wang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Yiming Pan"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0t8zz6n009mtz.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2610.36182",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "0t8zz6n009mtz",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.36182",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "physics.optics"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "quant-ph"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3107|Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7224131577",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.36182",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-26",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0t8zz6n009mtz.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:35:50Z",
      "native_id": "2610.36182",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.36182"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:physics.optics",
      "subfield": "optics-photonics"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:quant-ph",
      "subfield": "quantum"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Ultrafast light-electron modulation for free-electron quantum optics: fundamentals and applications",
  "title_text": "Ultrafast light-electron modulation for free-electron quantum optics: fundamentals and applications",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:35:50Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0t8zz6n009mtz",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}