Tunable free-electron X-ray radiation from van der Waals materials

Michael Shentcis, Adam K. Budniak, Xihang Shi, Raphael Dahan, Yaniv Kurman, Michael Kalina, Hanan Herzig Sheinfux, Mark Blei, Mark Kamper Svendsen, Yaron Amouyal, Sefaattin Tongay, Kristian Sommer Thygesen, Frank H.L. Koppens, Efrat Lifshitz, F. Javier García de Abajo, Liang Jie Wong, Ido Kaminer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

67 Scopus citations

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 languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)686-692
Number of pages7
JournalNature Photonics
Volume14
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Nov 2020
Externally publishedYes

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.

FundersFunder number
ERC TOPONANOP726001
Explora CienciaFIS2017-91599-EXP
Fundacio Cellex Barcelona
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action PhonsiH2020-MSCA-ITN-642656
Mineco grants Plan NacionalFIS2016-81044-P
Fundación Cellex
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme881603, 789104, 820378, 843830, \773122, 785219
H2020 European Research Council789104-eNA
H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie ActionsH2020-MSCA-IF-2018-843830
European Commission
European Commission
Agency for Science, Technology and ResearchA1984c0043
National Medical Research Council
Nanyang Technological University
Danmarks GrundforskningsfondDNRF103
Generalitat de Catalunya
Consell Català de Recerca i Innovació
Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca2017 SGR 1656
Ministerio de Economía y CompetitividadMAT2017-88492-R, SEV-2015-0522, 789104-eNANO
Israel Science Foundation830/19
Azrieli Foundation

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Tunable free-electron X-ray radiation from van der Waals materials'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this