Lecturer: Dr. Ido Kaminer
Affiliation: Israel Institute of Technology - Technion
Abstract:
When a charged particle travels faster than the
phase velocity of light in a medium, it produces
Čerenkov radiation. We show that the
Čerenkov Effect contains new phenomena
arising from the quantum nature of a charged
particle. Specifically, with proper design of
particle wavepacket, we predict the traditional
Čerenkov radiation angle splits into two
distinctive cones of photonic shockwaves. One
of the shockwaves can move along a backward
cone, otherwise considered impossible for
Čerenkov radiation in ordinary matter. More
importantly, and more generally, the spectral
response reveals an upper frequency cutoff at
which the photon emission rate is diverging –
manifesting a new resonant light-matter
interaction. The origins of the major deviations
from the known understanding of the
Čerenkov effect are the nonlinear nature of the
interaction, and its spatial extent that exceeds
the wavelength of the emitted radiation.
Importantly, our findings are observable for
electron beams with realistic parameters,
offering new applications including coherent x-
ray sources and open a new realm for
Čerenkov detectors.