Attosecond electron beam control with mid-infrared laser pulses

The emerging field of all-optical electron-beam control enables the temporal shaping of free-electron beams at the level of optical cycles. Here we review our two recent experiments where we temporally compressed sub-relativistic electron beams with mid-infrared laser pulses. In the first experiment, we produced a train of few-femtosecond electron pulses with sub-picosecond multi-cycle mid-infrared pulses. In the second, we modulated the electron beams with single-cycle mid-infrared fields. The modulation with a minus-sine-like waveform produced an isolated attosecond peak. These results provide novel opportunities in ultrafast electron microscopy, laser-driven electron accelerators, and electron-matter collisions. (author)