Development of Ultra-cold Quantum-degenerate Relativistic Electron Beams for Research and Applications

以最有效的方式“传送”能量（即物质）和信息（即数据）同样激发了科学和科幻小说的灵感。在20世纪60年代，激光的发明使我们能够通过光束传输能量和信息，其内部成分几乎完全有序，并作为一个团队工作。激光本质上是“酷”的，这是原子科学家和工程师们发明的巧妙技巧使之成为可能。迄今为止，这一壮举还没有通过带电粒子束（如电子）来实现，这些带电粒子束是在非常热的、不稳定的状态下由用于从材料中提取它们的机制产生的。嵌入在大多数材料中的电子必须克服一个巨大的障碍，爬上并超越一个能量山，它们记得这个能量山，在释放时，它们会非常不守规矩，焦躁不安和紧张不安。在今天的实验室中产生的典型电子束确实非常热，与太阳表面相当。这项研究将开发特殊的和精确的图案结构材料，其特征比人类头发的宽度小1000倍（例如碳纳米管或石墨烯基结构），沉浸在一个非常高的电场中，允许材料内的电子毫不费劲地“穿过”障碍山，而不需要爬上它们，从而使释放的电子更冷，更有序，可以说是在一个单一的文件中一起行进。作为一束电子，它非常“冷”，就像粒子激光束一样。“设计师”发射器的复杂理论和计算模型将与最先进的精密结构制造以及随后的实验室性能测试齐头并进。一旦产生，必须作出特别的努力，使电子保持低温，同时以光束的形式获得速度和能量。具体的研究和开发将取决于北伊利诺伊大学（NIU）与主要的国家和国际实验室及其设施（如费米国家加速器实验室（FNAL），阿贡国家实验室（ANL），剑桥石墨烯中心（CGC）和美国工业）的合作。特别设计的样品将与ANL和CGC设施合作制备，并将在NIU/FNAL专门设计的测试设施进行测试。这项研究将为科学研究及其社会/工业应用开辟新的领域，例如：用于“超快”科学的紧凑型x射线激光器，基于单量子电荷和“自旋”的新型计算可能性，用于工业和医疗领域复杂独特结构的三维快速电子束打印，用于电子芯片行业新型纳米结构光刻的紧凑型便携式光源。该活动将激发科学家、工程师和技术人员在研究和教育方面的包容性合作，并整合学术界、国家实验室和产业界，以创造知识经济财富，整合牛大学的地方和国家教育和推广项目，包括多元化、少数民族教育和培训目标。

'Beaming' energy (i.e. matter) and information (i.e. data) in a most efficient way has inspired science and science fiction equally. In 1960s, lasers were invented allowing us to beam energy and information via light beams having its internal constituents almost perfectly ordered and working as a team. Lasers are intrinsically 'cool', made possible by clever tricks invented by atomic scientists and engineers. To date this feat has not been achieved by beams of charged particles such as electrons which are produced in a very hot, restless state by the mechanisms used to extract them from materials. The electrons embedded in most materials have to overcome a tremendous barrier and climb up and beyond an energy hill which they remember and which they vent off literally by being very unruly, restless and jittery upon their release. A typical electron beam produced in today's laboratories is very hot indeed, comparable to the surface of the sun. This research will develop special and precisely patterned structured materials with features a thousand times smaller than the width of human hair (e.g. carbon nanotube- or Graphene-based structures), immersed in a very high electric field allowing the electrons inside the material to 'tunnel through' the barrier hills effortlessly without climbing them, thus making the released electrons colder and ordered, traveling together in a single file so-to-speak, as a beam of electrons that is so 'cold' that it will act like a particle laser beam. Complex theoretical and computational modeling of 'designer' emitters will go hand-in-hand with state-of-the-art fabrication of such delicate and precise structures and their subsequent testing for performance in the laboratory. Once produced, special effort will have to be made to allow the electrons to remain cold while gaining speed and energy as a beam.The particular research and development will depend on a collaboration of Northern Illinois University (NIU) with major national and international laboratories and their facilities such as the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Cambridge Graphene Centre (CGC) and US industries. Specially designed samples will be prepared in collaboration with ANL and CGC facilities and will be tested at NIU/FNAL specially designed test facility. The research will open up new areas of scientific investigation and their societal/industrial applications e.g. compact x-ray lasers for 'ultra-fast' science, novel computational possibilities based upon a single quantum of charge and 'spin', three dimensional rapid electron-beam printing of complex unique structures of industrial and medical interest, compact portable sources of light for lithography of novel nano-structures for the electronic chip industry. The activity will inspire inclusive collaboration between scientists, engineers and technologists in research and education and integrate academia, national laboratory and industry for knowledge-based economic wealth creation, integrating the local and national education and outreach programs at NIU inclusive of diversity, minority education and training goals.