Abstract
Tunable sources of X-ray radiation are widely used for imaging and spectroscopy in fundamental science, medicine and industry. The growing demand for highly tunable, high-brightness laboratory-scale X-ray sources motivates research into new fundamental mechanisms of X-ray generation. Here, we demonstrate the ability of van der Waals materials to serve as a platform for tunable X-ray generation when irradiated by moderately relativistic electrons available, for example, from a transmission electron microscope. The radiation spectrum can be precisely controlled by tuning the acceleration voltage of the incident electrons, as well as by our proposed approach: adjusting the lattice structure of the van der Waals material. We present experimental results for both methods, observing the energy tunability of X-ray radiation from the van der Waals materials WSe2, CrPS4, MnPS3, FePS3, CoPS3 and NiPS3. Our findings demonstrate the concept of material design at the atomic level, using van der Waals heterostructures and other atomic superlattices, for exploring novel phenomena of X-ray physics.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 686-692 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Nature Photonics |
Volume | 14 |
Issue number | 11 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Nov 2020 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2020, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
Funding
We thank Y. Kauffmann for advice and discussions. This work was supported by the ERC (Starter Grant no. 851780), the ISF (Grant no. 830/19) and the European Commission via the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Phonsi (H2020-MSCA-ITN-642656). H.H.S. also acknowledges the support of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018-843830). K.S.T. acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant no. \773122, LIMA). The Center for Nanostructured Graphene is sponsored by the Danish National Research Foundation, Project DNRF103. F.H.L.K. acknowledges financial support from the Government of Catalonia through the SGR grant, and from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the “Severo Ochoa” Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (SEV-2015-0522), and Explora Ciencia FIS2017-91599-EXP. F.H.L.K. also acknowledges support by Fundacio Cellex Barcelona, Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA program, and the Mineco grants Plan Nacional (FIS2016-81044-P) and the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR) 2017 SGR 1656. Furthermore, the research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 under grant agreement no. 785219 (Core2) and no. 881603 (Core3) Graphene Flagship, and no. 820378 (Quantum Flagship). This work was supported by the ERC TOPONANOP under grant agreement no. 726001. L.J.W. acknowledges the support of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering Young Individual Research Grant (A1984c0043), and the Nanyang Assistant Professorship Start-up Grant. F.J.G.A. acknowledges support from the Spanish MINECO (Grant nos. MAT2017-88492-R and SEV2015-0522), ERC (Advanced Grant no. 789104-eNANO), the Catalan CERCA Program and Fundació Privada Cellex. I.K. was also supported by an Azrieli Faculty Fellowship.
Funders | Funder number |
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ERC TOPONANOP | 726001 |
Explora Ciencia | FIS2017-91599-EXP |
Fundacio Cellex Barcelona | |
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Phonsi | H2020-MSCA-ITN-642656 |
Mineco grants Plan Nacional | FIS2016-81044-P |
Fundación Cellex | |
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme | 881603, 789104, 820378, 843830, \773122, 785219 |
H2020 European Research Council | 789104-eNA |
H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions | H2020-MSCA-IF-2018-843830 |
European Commission | |
European Commission | |
Agency for Science, Technology and Research | A1984c0043 |
National Medical Research Council | |
Nanyang Technological University | |
Danmarks Grundforskningsfond | DNRF103 |
Generalitat de Catalunya | |
Consell Català de Recerca i Innovació | |
Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca | 2017 SGR 1656 |
Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad | MAT2017-88492-R, SEV-2015-0522, 789104-eNANO |
Israel Science Foundation | 830/19 |
Azrieli Foundation |